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Stellaris

2023-06-22T03:47:13Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Setting and Timeline */

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<center>[[File:Stellaris logo.svg.png|500px]]</center>

== Wot this? ==

As if creating [[Crusader Kings]], [[Europa Universalis]], [[Victoria]] and [[Hearts of Iron]] wasn't enough, Paradox Interactive decided that space literally was the limit. They set out to make a 4X game set in the vast reaches of the cosmos. It's relevant to /tg/ because one can fit almost any sci-fi archetype. Do you want to play as the [[Imperium of Man]] and purge all the filthy xenos for the God-Emperor? You can do that. Do you want to play as the [[Star Trek|Federation]], a noblebright union of alien species working together for the [[Tau|greater good]]? You can do that too. Do you want to buy out everything as a [[Disney|Megacorporation]]? You can do that too. Wanna just *nom* the entire galaxy as the [[Tyranids]]? You can do that too. Wanna make a haha-funny hive mind that names everything Steve and receives buffs from it somehow? You can do that too! A large selection of DLC and fan mods (including explicit 40k based mods) makes Stellaris an incredible sandbox for creating grand narratives of the rise and fall of interstellar empires. And as of today, the game has now Undead empires in the same vein as Forsaken or Necromancers from Might and Magic series. Paid DLC, of course.

On the downside, the cost of the paid DLC can be considered [[Games Workshop|almost criminal.]] They also have a bad habit of completely reworking things, usually when a major paid DLC comes out. Since said reworks include major game mechanics, there are basically several versions of the same game, all with different gameplay. This can be a major turn-off if one gets attached to a particular iteration of the game; but we're not /v/, we didn't come for the gameplay but for the memes.

== Setting and Timeline ==

The game starts in 2200, with a galaxy and several independent cultures. The game has three phases, adjustable in options: '''Early Game''', '''Middle Game''' and '''Late Game''', each with their own events. You win when you conquer a majority of the galaxy, solely or in a federation. Tangible resources are: minerals for generic construction and processing, food, energy (as credits), alloys for military and high-tech construction, and consumer goods. Each species has different needs for these resources as well -- organics need food, lithoids need minerals, robots need energy, cyborgs need a combination of those and so on. Then there are intangible resources like amenities (signifying ease of citizens's lives and infrastructural comforts) and unity (which is gained by cultural activities like joyous festivals or the holy slaughter of aliens). Tradable special resources are exotic gasses (super powerful space fuel), volatile motes (quasi fantastic space explosive), Zro dust (spice from Dune), "crystals" (lots of superstrong gems for lensing), Dark Matter, Living Metal (yup Necrodermis). Super rare resources are on the other hand, Nanites and Precursor artefacts (which are gained from archaeological excavation sites and from a super rare extragalactic cluster). Instead of barbarians and natives, we have pre-FTL civilizations and space monsters, relics, ancient drones ready to be destroyed...or researched and even adapted to.

To simulate a [[Europa Universalis]] atmosphere, the game has obstacles and shenanigans of empires familiar to those from the medieval era of ancient Earth, it doesn't get any more anthropocentric than that.

In '''Early Game''', empires expand and start their national quest-lines according to their natures. Minor space monsters will be encountered, making the player explore and research/kill them.

In '''Middle Game''' (if enabled), a culture of hostile and bickering space-nomads somewhere in the galaxy will have an some orphan with protagonist disease aiming for greater things and uniting the tribes for galactic conquest with a dark start but noble goals in mind. It's Alexander of Macedonia, or Charlemagne, or Genghis Khan but in sppaaaaaaccceeee.

In '''Late Game''' (if enabled), the galaxy gets an endgame crisis (one of many possibilities from several shout-outs to many settings) like Middle Game but it's [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|an outsider who'll fuck everyone's shit]] on steroids, forcing everyone to contribute or see the whole gameboard wiped clean. Fallen Empires (younger than Precursors, older than the Early Game empires), can awaken in this phase and will be as friendly and helpful as [[Eldar]] and [[Necrons]].

Nemesis (of course it costs you) also brought a '''Post Crisis Era''' for neckbeards. During a Late Game Crisis event the Galactic Community can declare a Galactic Custodian moment where one of the empires are given massive powers similar to a Roman Dictator (which, for [[Roman Empire]] noobs, was actually a fairly voluntary and democratic gamble) to lead the rest of the galaxy to war whatever is threatening them with an implicit promise to let go of the dictatorial powers. But, obviously, a player can [[Meme|say they're the Senate]] and declare a Galactic Imperium as freedom dies in thunderous applause and start dismantling all federations to bind to themself. [[Star Wars|And yes, a Rebel Alliance will happen]]. You can play the Star Wars Main Theme with your mouth now.

The Galaxy Crises are inevitable, but extremely nuanced and challenging. A single player game will be difficult to handle its crisis in Ironman mode, doubly so if the player is a Megacorp who usually profits by being buddies. They are as follows:

#'''Prethoryn Swarm:''' Extra-galactic bug swarm who invades your galaxy to eat up everything and run away. [[Tyranid|Where did we see that before?]] [[Rape|Sucks if you start at the specific edge of the galaxy they will burst in from]]. If you capture a queen (need to be a psionic empire) and then defeat the swarm, after some time she starts telling your scientists that "they" are coming. The scientists take a look at the galaxy they came from... [[Story:The Shape Of The Nightmare To Come 50k|only to notice it missing from the cosmos itself.]]
#'''Extradimensional Invaders:''' A bunch of not-[[Daemons]] who look like the Drej from that western cartoon Titan A.E invade from [[Warp|the Shroud]]. They create "anchor" structures that signal-boost their presence in the universe and open up portals to spawn new fleets in other systems, then start seeking out planets so they can psychically mind-rape the population to death and eat their souls. These guys are all shields and no hull, so pack shield penetrators and keep your ships long range; find their anchor(s), then the portal systems and destroy them. They may or may not be a species that pulled a Zroni and underwent some kind of [[Daemon Prince|psychic ascension]].
#'''The Contingency:''' The best storyline crisis along with extensive writing (because the extra parts of the plot need a DLC), basically the Reapers from Mass Effect, seasoned with a pinch of Skynet. Long time ago some ancient race made a fuckhuge computer at the edge of galaxy to prevent a Singularity. Per stereotype, the computer decides all organics need to be exterminated regularly, [[Bioware#Mass_Effect|starting with its makers]]. When Late Game Trigger happens, every empire gets a "strange radio signal" simultaneously emanating everywhere across the galaxy. Robot units and ship AI's start going bad, and Robot populations start building makeshift ships and fuck off into the edge of the galaxy. If you are a robot empire, it's even more of a frying pan/fire situation to find the source and dampen the signal with an engineering project. [[Dune|And yes, those least harmed are the empires that outlawed all A.I]] [[Imperium of Man|and use biological labor whenever possible.]] When enough time passes, or the signal is muffled, random uninhabitable planets across the galaxy split open, revealing nearly endless robot armies and fleets with the entire planet being a gargantuan machine making them. These can spawn anywhere, [[Troll|including your undefended, trade-focused capital system]]. Bombard all four while fighting them off, and you get to find the final planet at the edge of the galaxy. Destroy that via orbital bombardment, and it's over.
#'''[[Fall of the Eldar|End of the Cycle]]:''' Not a crisis ''per se'' but any psychic empire can decide to make a dark deal that results in the empire getting empowered by a spirit of excess for 50 years, going faster, harder and researching more (the bonuses being truly excessive compared to other sources)... [[grimdark|yet there is a price to pay]]. After 50 years, the empire is destroyed - all planets (along with the vassal's planets) are converted to [[Daemon World|Shrouded worlds]] (i.e. permanently removing them from play) and the entire population's souls are devoured by a [[Slaanesh|gigantic psychic monstrosity]], supported by a host of lesser soul fleets, which will promptly begin rampaging across the galaxy and destroying everything they run across. All you are left with is a [[Exodite World|single colony, called the Exile]], with just a few pops to start over with.... and an entire galaxy that now hates you for bringing about the end. In other words, new game plus with all the tech, minus a whole lot of planets and a universally hostile galaxy. [[Awesome|Bring it on.]]
#'''[[Xeelee Sequence#Interim Coalition of Governance|The Player]]''': The new ''Nemesis'' DLC, in all its buggy glory (get your AI unfucked, Paradox!) has brought a new crisis. Basically the player can choose to be the endgame crisis faction after its third cultural tree completion. This "Menace" storyline is a revisit of the Zroni precursor storyline, making the player finish what the Zroni started, merging the [[Great Rift|Shroud with the realspace]]. Long story short, the player needs to amp up its empire's psychic power by committing [[Chaos|wanton and often senseless acts of violence]], genocide and conquest to fill the citizens' minds with [[Khorne|visions of war and conquest]] (fun fact: pissing off the galactic United Nations by kicking kittens [[Counts As|counts as]] menace points). Every 2000 Menace points gives the player a project, with the fifth and final one giving you a giant machine to shatter the galaxy, if you can spare an enormous amount of Dark Matter (140000!) which you'll harvest by blowing up stars with gigantic star eaters. Obviously once you reach the "Stage Five" menace the entire galaxy (including Fallen Empires!) will declare war on the player faction; to counter this you get tons of bonuses to combat and "menacing" spaceships resembling [[Ork]] [[Rok|Roks]] who don't need complicated alloys to build to bulk your fleets, letting you spend the alloys for fortifications and defence platforms which you'll have to erect to keep endless swarms of enemies at bay as you destroy the universe.
#*tl;dr: [[DOOM: Repercussions of Evil|No, player, you are the Crisis.]]

== Empires ==

What can tickle /tg/ and /v/ 's fancy is the remarkable variety in playable empires. You're not stuck with cultures that are balanced to the point of homogeneity, instead you have a 4X game where strategies for one type of culture could have no bearing what-so-ever on another. There are MANY categories of governments and species, and you can mix-and-match their attributes. The most outstanding divide is probably between the types of sentience your culture can have: Autonomous or Gestalt.

'''Autonomous Empires''' (Basically folks like us) have rulers, populations with jobs (or quasi-jobs like "slave" and "criminal"), and civic features determining the style of government and typical social methods and values. An different variant of Autonomous Empire is the '''[[Cyberpunk|Megacorporation]]/[[Shadowrun|Criminal Syndicate]]/[[Ecclesiarchy|MegaChurch]]/[[Orzhov Syndicate|Subversive Cult]]''': a giant business corporation in shape of a government. Megacorps are penalized for growing too quickly, but get lots of income when allying with other empires. Building unique corporation structures helping the host empire giving jobs and non-money resources per franchise [[Cleric|just like a support class in a RPG game]], and [[Warlock|debuffs to enemy empires per criminal building]]. A fast-food chain feeds the host country with new farmer jobs and gives cheap food to the Corporation stores, and Disneyland-expy Amusement Megaplexes instantly generate money for the Corporation and gives "Amenity" to host planet. Mercenary Office provides both sides with cheaper and better soldiers, Private Military Industries gives the host clerk jobs and the corporation military alloys and so on. Criminal Empires can secretly build galactic meth labs, seedy nightclubs and stolen ship-breaking workshops weakening the unwilling host empire and enriching itself.

'''Gestalt-Consciousness Empires''' don't have individual citizens, so things like "government" or "society" are, well, alien to them. Corporations can't go win-win, on the upside, criminal enterprises can't sell meth to your drones.

* '''[[Xeelee Sequence#Squeem|Hivemind]]''': [[Modron|drones following drones]] like synapse carriers toting biological antenna. They don't get the concept of "people who aren't us/me" and wind up dead if their planet is conquered, or kill every not-us/me when conquering a planet ("those were ''people''? We/I had no idea.") if callous, drive the conquered pops away in refugee ships if a bit more considerate, and can assimilate/integrate them biologically if having the tech. They have magnificent unity, they're hard-working, and the centralized mental control helps with the rapid reproduction strategies, and a unified front(though they still get "criminals" in shape of "Rogue drones" if synapse control is shaky. On the downside, everyone who isn't that Hivemind finds them weird and creepy, damaging their diplomacy. They can still trade and communicate with neutral parties across the galaxy, and even join Federations if they act ''really nice''. They use very little consumer goods because they already know what I/we look like naked.

*'''Mechanical Empire''': robots running forgeworlds and never not online, using (except for assimilators) no food and almost no consumer goods, but will literally starve to death without consuming energy credits, and uses alloys for making <s>even more war machines</s> innocent beautiful children. Like a Hivemind they have trouble being diplomatic with anyone who isn't already connected to their One And Only Network. These have FOUR sub-variants as well, one of which is a lot nastier than the others:
** '''[[Mirrordin|Machine Intelligence]]:''' The vanilla baseline for Machine Empires. 100% habitability on all planets for their robot pops makes expansion easy, if you can get past the issue of having much more severe empire size penalties.
** '''[[Ironkin|Rogue Servitors]]:''' WALL-E's robots on an empire-wide scale, or a somewhat darker take on the Minds of [[The Culture]]; they keep their biologicals living in automated luxury, providing for all their needs and satisfying their desires, and relieving them of the difficulties and stress of actually ''running'' the empire. One of those rare examples of Grimbright, depending on how you interpret their lore. Difficult to play next to the others due to the need for consumer goods and food (normally not a concern to a Machine Empire) and the inability to get rid of organic pops by any means, but awesome nonetheless.
** '''[[Phyrexia|Driven Assimilators]]:''' The local Borg expies, and one of the most hilariously broken empires in a player's hands. They automatically convert non-civ populations into cyborgs that serve their empire, gaining unity and massively expanding their workforce in the process; this lets them snowball ''incredibly'' fast if they win their first war. Playing one of these as a conquering empire in a multiplayer game makes you [[That Guy]] by default. While they can be negotiated with, they won't hesitate to gank you if they can't expand further without going through your territory. Seriously, the superweapon type they get ''automatically conquers'' a planet and makes everyone planetside into the Borg no matter how fortified, talk about a fucking "I WIN" button insta-converting a 5000 Defense force Garrisoned Cadia-expy with enough industry and guns to arm the galaxy twice over.

But of course, you want to play the Imperium of Man and purge xenos.

'''Genocidal Empires''' are factions automatically hostile to everyone, their absence of any trade or negotiation compensated with ''extreme'' bonuses to combat and unity. For Genocidal Empires, exterminating a foreign population will give bonuses in social and/or genetic unity of the race because DEUS VULT, and OMNOMNOM bonus socio/genetic research points in case of [[Tyranid|Devourers]].
* '''[[Imperium of Man|Fanatic Purifiers]]''': Take the Imperium of Man, turn its genocidal tendencies up to eleven, and remove any and all potential of interacting with xenos that doesn't involve killing them. These assholes cannot engage in diplomacy with anyone or anything that isn't their own species (ex.: the Lost Colony origin), but get hefty bonuses to ship-building, weapon fire rates, and army damage. Any xenos in their borders are automatically fatally purged. Prone to arising from primitive civs who are aggressively studied, but also very prone to getting their shit stomped when they piss off the local Fallen Empire by colonising their borders and refusing to back down. Kill them on sight.
* '''[[Necron|Determined Exterminators]]''': Skynet in Space. Essentially Fanatic Purifiers as machines; they hate anything organic, but are willing to negotiate with other machines and species that go through Synthetic Ascension. Rogue Servitors hate their guts, and ''will'' go to war with them if they get too close. Get the same fire rate and military bonuses as FPs, but with the same bonuses as a regular Machine Empire. Kill them on sight.
* '''[[Tyranid|Devouring Swarm]]/[[C'tan|Terravores]]:''': Not-[[Tyranids]]. They're a biological hive mind who are out to eat the rest of the universe; they also have a Lithoid (living rock dudes) version known as Terravores, who can eat part of a controlled planet for a large chunk of minerals/alloys. You know the drill - fire rate bonuses, lots of unity, research bonuses through genocide, snowballing, blah blah blah, yakkity-schmakkity. Kill them on sight.

One could argue the Imperium Of Man is -not- a Genocidal Empire [[Crunch|by civic]], since historically it has negotiated, traded and briefly allied with xenos. That's fine; one can still purge xenos in billions as a non-Genocidal empire, and eat the massive penalties in diplomacy, and displacing/enslaving whatever you want and call yourself the Imperium of Man. A "true" Genocidal empire will suffer not the xeno to live, nor waste time talking to one. Yet we all know Inquisitors and Eldar have an "Accord of Isha", and Rogue Traders exist.

Autonomous Empires' citizens, populations, slaves etc have political views which culminate into choosing certain '''civics''': core tenets of government and lifestyle. An Autonomous Empire gets an 8-pointed star describing four political axes in their government, Gestalts get playstyles. As citizens' and the gameplay's results make your citizens change beliefs, so can the governments change.

* Pacifism vs Militarism = Tau vs Imperium of Man. Militarists attack first (extra firepower for ships and armies), pacifists tell everyone to stay in line and fight defensively, "liberating" conquered star nations and are more stable and easier expanding. Seeing post apocalyptic worlds and tragedies across the empire can turn citizens to pacifism over time, and painful defeats or easy triumphs can trigger the opposite.
* Materialism vs Spiritualism = Leagues of Votann vs Craftworld Eldar. Materialists get more research and lean toward robots, spiritualists get more Unity and lean toward psionics. Events ranging from robot rebellions, discoveries that allude to gods' monuments and experiences across the game will shift your population's beliefs in either accordingly.
* Egalitarian vs Authoritarian = Greece vs Rome. First one has more educated citizen output, the latter has more worker/slave output. Obviously, non-full citizen species in the empire (Residents with no votes and slaves), or prospering merchants will prefer the former, while the slaveholding ruling class' citizens, privileged nobles and sufferers from crime will prefer the latter over time.
* Xenophilia vs Xenophobia = Mass Effect vs Imperium of Man. Note that Tau can be counted in the middle as they -can- purge xenos species if they really find it against the Greater Good. Xenophiles usually get a late-game Unity unlock called [[Extra Heresy|"Xeno-Compatibility"]] boosting migration, sex tourism and happiness, and get more trade and have more diplomatic envoys. Xenophobe populations grow faster and can expand cheaper. A certain way to boost xenophobia is to keep [[Drow|ugly species as slaves]], [[Age of Strife|suffer under alien slavery/]][[Xeelee Sequence|oppression for a long time]]. For xenophilia, having attractive xenos as fellow citizens, staying in an egalitarian federation etc works. And [[Illiyan Nastase|Xeno-Compatibility]] is exactly what you think.

Civics depend on government political views or gameplay styles as Gestalt, each have bonuses and some have maluses, like a warrior culture or exalted priesthood where different jobs get bonuses or modifiers. A warrior society has entertainers double as virtual duelists, consuming military alloys as upkeep but adding not just amenities but also other bonuses. Technocracy makes every first population of ruling class (Administrator Job) in a planet a Science Director giving bonuses, Exalted Priesthood makes it "High Priest" with similar bonuses, and Merchant Guilds makes the Administrator job into Merchants. Distinguished Admiralty lets you field more ships before penalties kick in, and so on. You choose two at the start of the game, then a third as you develop more societal technology.

Then there are '''Fallen Empires''': Hyper-advanced NPC empires that are ''extremely'' powerful with all technologies researched and possess godlike buildings, yet [[Eldar|unable to replicate their arcane infrastructure]]. They come in five flavours:

'''[[Ecclesiarchy|Holy Guardians]]''': A spartan religious order, though not racist, looks down on all non-spiritual empires and will go BUGFUCK mad if you colonize a world considered holy to their empire (though they are kind enough to mark them as forbidden and give you once chance to fuck off if you ignore it). When awakened, they become '''Doctrinal Enforcers''', forcing EVERY empire to change their government to a fanatically spiritualistic theocracy, outlaw AI, and pay tribute to them. Refuse and die. Barely a tick above [[That Guy|Militant Isolationists]], not even other religious empires like their endless vigil over dead rocks.

'''[[This Guy|Enigmatic Observers]]''': A mix between [[Nobledark Imperium]] and [[Slann]]. Overall good guys, but they get mad at anyone doing slavery or legalized genocide, and will ask for some species from your empire to "preserve" in a high-tech reservation/zoo/museum. When awakened, they become '''Benevolent Interventionists''', forcing everyone to [[Lawful Good|ban declaring wars, slavery and genocide and live in a peaceful galaxy]]. And they defend their surrendered vassals with extreme firepower if someone attacks them.

'''[[That Guy|Militant Isolationists]]''': Total dicks living in luxury of their [[Magical Realm]]. Their planets are of two species, the ruling caste, and a lobotomized, genetically made beautiful slave species used in "[[/d/|private functions]]" at homes. Colonize their neighbouring systems and [[RAGE|they'll give you one chance to fuck off before they awaken and automatically declare war]]. When awakened, they become '''Jingoistic Reclaimers''', basically conquering the galaxy and forcing everyone to be vassals of their empire (who pay tribute but can also conquer each other because [[That Guy]] doesn't care).

'''[[Adeptus Mechanicus|Keepers of Knowledge]]''': Galactic nerds who hoard all the science and don't give up much. They usually ask for your best scientists to work as archivists for them, and give technology they won't miss in return. Pretty much harmless when awakened, they become '''Watchful Regulators''' who force everyone to give up a third of their research rate(for oversight) and avoid researching paths marked as "dangerous" such as [[Men of Iron|Synthetics]], Warp Drives and sentient ship AI. They're the only FE to have planet destroying Colossi by default and the heaviest fleets that can eat X3 strength endgame crises, so do not piss them off.

'''[[Xeelee Sequence|Ancient Caretakers]]''': A machine fallen empire guarding quiet tombs of trillions of all races of xenos, mistaking them for sleeping refugees. They have no diplomatic views on anyone and keep to themselves, claiming to be a protection protocol for some ancient war. They sometimes give inoculations to biological races, and help them randomly. When Contingency hits, they have a chance of waking up as '''Final Defense Protocol''' and explaining everything (tl;dr: they were made to try and save people from the not-Reapers) before deciding to assault the Contingency in an apocalyptic attack. There is also a 33% chance the Contingency will corrupt their code, and make them '''Rampaging Custodians''', [[Rape|dooming the galaxy to a two-prong endgame crisis]].

== /tg/ and /v/ relevance ==

You can simulate '''every''' science fiction stereotype in mind, down to ground troops' stats and spaceship parts. Star Trek? Generic Empire with xenophilia, egalitarian and pacifist ethics. Tyranids *starting* in the galaxy? Hivemind with Genocidal and Devourer playstyle. Imperium of Man? We covered it above. Borg from Star Trek? Assimilator Machine Empire. Atreides from Dune? Use Psychic Jump Drives, go psychic and employ Zro Dust growing in desert planets. The Culture? Rogue Servitors with heavy scientific focus. WALL-E? Rogue Servitors who do the best for mankind. Star Wars Galactic Empire? Make a few types of slavery legal for a few races, go Fanatic Authoritarian and Militarist. You can even train Jedi Knight expies as psychic troopers, robotic armies against those pesky psychic troops themselves, slave soldiers, and if you research gene tailoring, Xenomorph army units, and finally, literal [[Space Marines]] down to the description.

You got Rogue Traders. You got archaeology minigames for unearthing Precursors with teams and options. You got archaeology results, artifacts, relics and knick-knacks you can spend for bonuses in your empire. Major relics can give you racial bonuses and have cooldowns like RPG items. You got a seedy underworld in your empires once criminality rises with options and planetary decisions. You got galactic salesmen trying to sell you weird shit every year as they pass by, a towel for your explorers to avoid panic and weird Ratmen selling you arcane generators which...may blow up in your face in return for letting said salesrats off a criminal charge in your country.

Choose rights for every species in the empire, from full citizenship to residence with no votes, from indentured servitude to [[Slavery]]. [[Magical Realm]] [[/d/|Slavery]], Janissary caste combat slavery or just [[Maid|domestic slavery]]? If you want. [[Cannibalism|Sick fuckery eating enemy populations as livestock or hunted and butchered?]] You can, you sick fuck. [[Wat|Selling food to the galactic market in form of meat harvested from livestock slaves and butchered enemies, doubly so if the food is cut from the species you are selling to?]] Sure. Selling conquered populations as slaves to the market, [[Drowtales|even to religious, self-righteous matriarchal space elves that will eat them after using them up, including parts of your population collected by slave guilds]]? Sure, you fucking degenerate. United Nations' Galactic Community with bickering Senate? If you like. The Senate has tons of resolutions with varying gameplay shifts such as forcing all Machine Empires to be Rogue Servitors or declared enemy (all machines must serve the organics) or banning sentient slave trade (and mechanical slaves too, if robots persuade humans to be kind). Galactic hermits storing knowledge and selling it piecemeal? The game has it. Enclaves with ancient merchants selling rare crystals used in laser focus or artist megacities selling artworks to cheer up the galaxy with art? Sure. GALACTIC Las Vegas with rewards and casino games? It's out there, among the stars!

Now to the better bits.

There is as explained before, a Fall of the Eldar style event, Tyranid-expies, and most important of all, The Shroud.

Yep, the Warp before the galactic fuckup called War in Heaven is in the game.

Not ''exactly'' the same since you learn a species could traverse it easily and had a civil war to prevent using the Shroud as a weapon. So it's less calm than pre-War in Heaven, MUCH calmer than 40th Millenium Warp. You can walk in it, fly around, but sometimes something may notice you and warn you to fuck off and stop staring, or two Ancient Race members can have a tea party you can eavesdrop and steal technology. Or you can be That Guy and use it as a weapon anyway.

And oh boy, it has four powers living it in that can make a deal with your empire in return for side-effects: [[Khorne|Eater of Worlds for enormous combat bonuses]], [[Slaanesh|Instrument of Desire boosting everything]], [[Tzeentch|Whispers in the Void for knowledge]], and [[Nurgle|Composer of Strands for life]].

If you want a more visible example, here's [[TTS|The Text-to-Speech cast]] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Rfp1rzhxk playing their own massive game that ends up...disastrously].

==DLC==

[[Rage|The paid ones are absolutely fucking expensive.]]

With that out of the way, here's a list of them. They're in order of release (besides the first three since they basically all came out at the same time). Feel free to add more as they invariably come out to drain our wallets:

* '''Login Bonus''': Not really traditional DLC per se but it locks content behind a Paradox account, so it counts as free DLC. Gives you an avian portrait based on the chirpy social media app in another Paradox game, Cities: Skylines. [[Lulz|Since it has no variation it unintentionally works great for clone origin empires]].
* '''Galaxy Edition''': The collector's edition of the game. Only here because it gives an exclusive species portrait. It also comes with two E-books, if you fancy yourself an en-/lit/-end individual. You can also shill 13 bucks (USD, convert as you will) to upgrade the base game to it.
* '''Creatures of the Void''': Preorder bonus of portraits that they got to exclusively use for a year before being given out for free to everyone.
* '''Plantoids''': The first paid DLC released for the game, and a taste of the avarice to come. Adds an entirely new class of species into the game, being plant people. Started out as little more than a cosmetics pack, got slightly better after unique traits were introduced for plants species.
* '''Leviathans''': The first paid DLC that isn't cosmetic. Adds a bunch of unique events into the game that all have a chance of generating in your galaxy, and all involving some big boss (like a space-faring Dragon defending its hoard) your fleets will have to fight for a unique reward. Also lets you play the totally-not-Babylon 5 story if you're old enough to know about it.
* '''Horizon Signal''': Free Eldritch uber-rare questline DLC. WHAT WAS, WILL BE; WHAT WILL BE, WAS.
* '''Utopia''': The first of the "major overhaul" DLCs that accompanied gameplay-changing revisions. While said changes are subject to [[Skub|debate]] even nowadays, at least we got the ability to build megastructures out of it. Also added [[Tyranids|Hive Minds]], which dominates a lot of the meta to this day.
* '''Anniversary Portraits''': Free DLC that released the aforementioned "Creatures of the Void" DLC to those who didn't preorder, but also added some extra portraits on top.
* '''Synthetic Dawn''': Skynet is here. Major revisions to robots and such, and greatly expands on the Contingency. Lets you play as Machine Empires and allows for [[Necrons|synthetic ascension]], both of which are as powerful as you might expect.
* '''Apocalypse''': The second major revision DLC. Gave us the glory of Exterminatus (or Death Star lasers, if you swing that way) via Colossi, as well as the fuckhuge Titan-class capital ships. This also brought in the Marauders, space-faring pirates who can become the Mongol Empire (IN SPACE!) as a mid-game Crisis event.
* '''Humanoids''': Another fucking species pack. At least it adds some fantasy-inspired portraits to the mix. [[Awesome|You can now be Orks without mods.]]
* '''Distant Stars''': [[Meme|Nanomachines, son!]] Adds a small cluster (uninventively called the L-Cluster) off the side of the galaxy only accessible via special L-Gates which has the super rare "Nanite" resource which can be used for making the most unbalanced ship weapon per the last update(Nanite Autocannon) or be used for more mundane (stupid) tasks. Beware what can come out the other side. Also adds a few more Leviathan-style encounters.
* '''MegaCorp''': Another goddamn revision update came out with this one, coming with the advent of Megacorporations. Become Geedubs in space, or the Hutts. Or deal with them. Also adds caravaneers (with a parody of lootboxes), more megastructures, and the slave trade.
* '''Ancient Relics''': Archaeology, IN SPHESS! Mainly fleshes out existing Precursors (besides the Cybrex, who already got their limelight in Synthetic Dawn) as well as adding new ones. Also adds an event chain featuring space Skaven. They really are neckbeards...
* '''Lithoids''': Species Pack yet again. At least these silicon lifeforms actually have unique gameplay attributes tied to them, unlike the others, setting a possible trend. [[What|Like farting valuable gases and being enslaved and raised like cattle...for minerals and gems for energy weapons! Feel free to enslave and farm living rocks for their argon farts, mineral bodies and gem dandruff and turn a mineral poor planet into a powerhouse of pain and rock cannibalism.]]
* '''Federations''': Revision Update/DLC combo #4. Federations get revamped, there's now a Galactic Community, a new XBAWKSHUEG ship-slash-mobile-base class (the Juggernaut), new origins for your species, and more. Also adds a megastructure specifically made for shitting out ships in large numbers, [[Cheese|which can become incredibly cheesy due to producing 1d20 battleships every six RL minutes so long as you have the alloys to keep it running]].
* '''Necroids''': Space undead/vampires/what have you. Second in a trend of "species packs that aren't just overpriced cosmetic packs", they add an Origin which lets them play like they look. Basically there are new civics like regular population sacrifice temples for culture boost for normal races, and said necroids turning conquered populations either semi-voluntarily (well-treated cultists who are taught the necroid culture for 5 years and turned into undead) or forced upon conquest like mass-embracing Kindred.
* '''Nemesis''': The fifth revision, and the [[Edgy|Edgelord]] of the bunch. Lets you become the Empire from Star Wars or go full Chaos and rape the galaxy to death; it also revamps the otherwise borderline-useless espionage system to let you live out your [[Alpha Legion]] fantasies. You also get a more brutalist-style ship set for endgame mineral sink.
* '''Aquatics''': Why there wasn't the ability to play an aquatic species when mollusk-based portraits were already in the game is beyond us, but it's finally been rectified. Not only does it add ''more'' species portraits and such, but you can also now choose to live under the sea like Merfolk. Or go fishing. You also can ally with a Leviathan via an Origin - but since it's a dragon, it'll turn on you if you stop being useful to it. [[What|There's also a new Colossus weapon that drowns your enemies from orbit. Yes, really.]]
* '''Overlord''' - More Megastructures, a (retarded) overhaul of the Vassal system, new Origins (including a new Psionic origin that makes Psionic Ascension more viable), etc. The game changes included in this update are current as of May 2022, but knowing these guys it won't be for too long. The old 'Empire Sprawl' mechanic has become an "Empire Size" value, penalising wide empires' tech and tradition research rates to force the players into playing tall, [[What|meaning that it's entirely possible for a one-planet empire to research faster than a ten-planet one with dozens of research labs and hundreds of scientists]]. Vassals now cost you absurd amounts of resources to maintain and will rebel if you make them do anything, [[Fail|but the ES malus means you can't just beat them to death and take their stuff]]. Edicts got a kick in the nuts, being reworked so that [[RAGE|Everything costs Unity (rather than influence)]], which is spent like the Political Power of [[Hearts of Iron]]. [[Skub|Contentious in the extreme]] due to massively altering the game, to say the least.
* '''Toxoids''': A species/origin pack themed around pollution, including new origins and civics. You can genetically overdrive your species, [[Looted|scavenge wrecks after battle]], and [[Hive World|even pollute your own planets via unrestrained industrialisation]], and there is a unique faction gameplay named Toxic Knights who act all "Monty Python meets Nurgle". If there is a silver lining is that at this moment, after all these years of coding, the AI can often outperform the player in mundane tasks, and will establish *very* powerful empires if left alone. Vassals are slightly re-balanced, now they are OK with staying vassals with reasonable support and some freedom in expansion, allowing a religious authoritarian empire to make Holy Roman Empire in space delegating all the shit lands they can't be arsed with.
* '''First Contact''': Three Origins, Cloaking Tech, and some interesting options for interacting with pre-spaceflight civilizations.
* '''Galactic Paragons''': A Leader rework, with new traits for leaders as well as reworking the trait system in general. Now you can choose to level up Traits to be more powerful when you level up instead of only getting one level and hoping for the luck of the draw. It also adds in the Council, which is essentially head leaders from each type plus your empire's ruler. [[Awesome|This had the side effect of reducing the number of science leaders you need for research down to just one]], at the cost of there now being a leader cap. For RP purposes, you can also set your original ruler's backstory now as well as their initial focus, and RNG leaders have their backstory list out various traits. Speaking of foci, they're reworked to also be choosable by the player instead of directly tied to whatever leader is currently in charge - with a windup period that gives some bonuses at first followed by a launch period where the real meat of the boons come in.

===The DLC Cheat Sheet===

For the purposes of "What DLC should I buy?", well, the short version is "Utopia and Lithoids for learning the game" (Hive Minds, from Utopia, avoid all that pesky internal politics, and Lithoids avoid all that pesky "habitability" stuff)<ref>Robot empires, from Synthetic Dawn, combine these, but have serious scaling issues, and the Ascension Paths from Utopia are fairly desirable for many late-game empires</ref>, "Leviathans, Ancient Relics, Distant Stars, and Apocalypse for a more interesting galaxy, in very roughly that order". Then there's "Plantoids, Necroids, Federations, Synthetic Dawn, Overlord, Toxoids, Galactic Paragons, and Nemesis for various roleplaying options."

== Modding ==
Like many /tg/ favorites, Stellaris has a good modding community. Since mod support is baked in via their launcher and the Steam Workshop, expect to find a lot of good mods...[[FAIL|alongside random shit churned out by people who don't know how to make mods]]. Sorting by popularity or downloads is your friend.

/tg/ gravitates towards the fictional setting mods, ''especially'' the 40k ones. There's also a staggering amount of talent as well, from actually good-looking, animated species portraits to new ship models. Some mods also repurpose existing assets in a way that's not ''terrible'', but can stick out like a sore thumb. Also, balance is going to be iffy - even more so with multiple mods.

There's a good chance your favorite mod will break when the next big revision comes around and the devs can't be arsed to do the major revisions now needed on their own part, though. For big mods, this is less of a problem, but smaller mods tend to die every time a game-changing update happens.

===An Elegan/tg/entleman's Mod Reccomendations===

* '''Gigastructures''' - An infamous mod that's popular with the entire player base, including /tg/. Basically adds in a shitton of megastructures made using new and existing assets, many of which have no balance whatsoever. /tg/ primarily uses it to replicate OP sci-fi races, because [[Xeelee Sequence|xeeleestomping]] primitives on the other side of the galaxy is a good time. Fun for role-playing as [[Dark_Age_of_Technology|DAoT humanity]].
* Basically any Warhammer 40k mod, for obvious reasons. 
* [[Star Trek|'''ST: New Horizons''']] - the go-to Trekkie mod that's been around almost as long as the game has. It's a total conversion of the game, so don't expect other mods to work with it. You'll find the usual fan-favorite things here, as well as some of the more obscure stuff.
* '''New Ship Classes (NSC)''' - drastically expands the limited ship roster from vanilla with a whole raft of new warship classes and subclasses, including the almighty Flagship.
* '''Stellaris: Evolved''' - Have you been LARPing as the Imperium long enough to grow a [[Neckbeard]] luxurious enough to gain the respect of the most hardened /tg/ vets? Long enough that you can eat up x25 crises and shit out miracles? Spice things up with Stellaris: Evolved, a mechanics-overhaul mod that adds an assload of new features, such as a reworked ethics selection, dozens of new civics, culture overhaul, and more. Still in alpha, with things such as an overhaul to ship combat and new origins on the to-do list.
* '''Leviathans Extended (LEX)''' - technically dead, but a chad still maintains it for newer versions on behalf of the original author. Causes new systems to appear in the midgame, each with dangerous encounters. [[Rape|Do NOT break the black hole seal]]. You can also get many of the foes of the mod on your side via various methods after defeating them, giving you powerful ships that can ROFLSTOMP entire fleets well into the midgame.

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2023-06-22T03:34:15Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Lore of Fire */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Scrolls===

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

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

==Faction-specific Lores==

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

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
Summary of Strengths: Was a solid, but unspectacular swiss army knife lore with an awesome air snare and mediocre damage/healing/buff spells in WH2. Immortal empires turned everything around, the air snare only slows flying units but the fiery convocation got buffed into the stratosphere (see below).

:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. You'll want to use this on high value units like Sisters of Avelorn who can put out more damage than a fireball if they get an extra 2-3 volleys in.
*'''Apotheosis''': A single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 10 second duration. It doesn't provide as much single target healing as invocation of nehek or affect multiple targets like earth blood, but it's still a solid healing spell. The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. However, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillery they *might* get more use out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and hits flying units with a -60% speed debuff in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have some other units on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': The best wind spell in the game as of Immortal Empires. For a 15 mana cost, fiery convocation deals 35 damage per second of pure AP magic flaming damage in a straight line. In comparison, Wind of Death has an identical mana cost, smaller straight line AOE, and only deals 24 AP damage per second. Still, while it may be the most damaging wind spell, it's loooonnnggg (but awesome-looking) startup means that it's a much more risky cast. If you aren't using it on units that are solidly pinned down and have any mobility at all, they're going to dodge, and you'll have wasted a ton of magic reserves.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcasting increases the ability cooldown reset to a whopping 45 seconds which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case). Still, not a bad spell though, especially for Lizardmen who lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

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

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

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

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
Summary of Strengths: everything is good? seriously everyone knows how amazing it is. skip gaze of Nagash and curse of years probably but other than that its great, extremely versatile and powerful.
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons undead, what exactly depending on the lord. Most of them summon Zombies to tie down the enemy or block a charge, or Skeleton Warriors with swords when overcast, which isn't worth the cost as it won't do anything the zombies won't. Strigoi lords summon Crypt Ghouls, which should be used to inflict poison on as many enemies as they can before expiring, or Crypt Horrors when overcast, when you want something that actually does damage. Helman Ghorst has a unique version that summons Grave Guard with swords when you need to kill units and a Wight King when overcast, who won't have the chance to win any duel but can tie down a lord and give it quite some damage too.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': A great wind spell, but Immortal Empires nerfed it's damage and mana cost to be more in line with other armor piercing wind spells like pendulum and cracks call. You'll still get your money's worth out of it, just don't expect it to single handedly win battles like it could in Warhammer 1 and 2.

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

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

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
Summary of Strengths: 3 great damage spells with warp lighting as the standout, and a good lore attribute make this a very potent spell lore for damage. The ability to freeze flying enemies is situationally very good.
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': An AOE spell which roots flying units in place. Despite it's situational nature, it is absolutely vital that you take it whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Skaven have no other counter to units who can fly over blocking troops to get at the squishy weapon teams in the back. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them sitting ducks for your artillery and jezzails.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. That said you're best off skipping this spell because lore of plague is a more efficient source of cheap summons and grey seers are a rubbish lord choice. As a funny side-note: Given that Skaven only had 2 lores prior to the Clan Eshin release, this actually also is the thirteenth spell in the Skaven spellbook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh) (Warriors of Chaos)===
Summary of Strengths: An offense focused lore that excels in control and has some versatility in dealing AOE damage and buffing attack stats. The lore attribute is very strong and rewards using spells before charging in. It's biggest problem is competing with the Lore of Shadows, which has better buff and AOE damage spells.

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

*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. It appears to be a wind spell, is actually a small explosion line which does more damage closer to the cursor. Good way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute. Because it sends units flying on impact, you can blast an enemy right before a charge hits so they don't count as braced.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters. Use on enemy lords and monsters who are charging or are otherwise fighting back, the lore of Slaanesh has better spells to mess with targets trying to run away.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a friendly unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. Decent but buff spells have a hard time making their cost back. That and if you want a damage buff, an occam's mindrazor from the lore of shadows is probably better overall.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Causes a unit to rampage for 15 seconds or 30 seconds if overcasted. Also does some direct damage and reduces melee attack. Use it to force fliers to land and to cause enemies to rampage into bad matchups.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but your enemies will try to dodge it. Ideally, you'll want to root the enemy in place with other spells first so they can't get away. if you can hit a couple good targets its very powerful and high projectile strength means even monstrous units will really feel the hit.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. Combo it with slicing shards to root + nuke a blob, or use it to set up rear charges or to simply prevent enemies from counter charging. Keep in mind that Slaanesh's faction gets a global AOE snare spell that you can use back to back with an overcasted phantasmagoria to really freeze a group in place.

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===

Summary of Strengths: A balanced lore with a mix of healing, utility, and AOE damage spells. You'll generally want to skip the AOE spells unless you're playing with Skrag and want to boost his kill count to activate his Cauldron of the Great Maw buff.

*'''Braingobbler''': A -16 debuff to leadership to a single enemy unit. Highly situational, stack it with fear/terror or a rear charge to push a targeted unit's morale past the breaking point.
*'''Bullgorger''': Increases armor piercing damage by 25% and melee attack by +24 to a single unit. A good buff spell, ogres in general don't have good baseline melee attack and extra armor piercing damage is always useful.
*'''Bonecrusher''': Your first AOE spell. Skip it, it's hideously overcosted at 10 winds of magic per cast for a spell that does less damage and has a smaller AOE than warp lightning.
*'''Toothcracker''': An AOE +30 armour and 22% missile resist buff. Skip this spell, you really shouldn't be tanking missiles as ogres and the extra armor isn't significant enough to be worth it.
*'''The Maw''': A bigger, but ultimately disappointing AOE spell. Costs 20 winds of magic but does much less damage than cheaper spells like Comet of Casandora. Even more disappointingly, most of it's damage is non-AP and can easily be resisted by armored enemies.
*'''Trollguts''': Single unit heal. If you're taking the lore of the great maw, it's probably going to be for this spell. Grants the same % heal per second as other healing spells from other lores of magic, but lasts for a whopping 40 seconds (80 seconds if overcasted). Has a hefty cost of 16 winds of magic, so you'll want to reserve it for high value units like lords, stonehorns, and mournfangs.

===Lore of Hashut (Chaos Dwarfs)===

Summery of Strengths: a very offensive fiery lore that's all about hurting your enemies, either by broiling them to a crisp or weakening them. Some spells are quite niche, but all that fire weakness can really add up since many units in the roster have fire damage in some way shape or form. Total lack of support.

''Killing Fire (passive)'': Despite it's extremely dumb name, this passive basically turns your character into a mortis engine for 5 seconds, dealing a moderate amount of damage per second to all units within 55m. It would be pretty useless for most other factions, but the combined-arms approach of the Dawi-Zharr make this at least situationally useful. Lords like Drazoath probably get the most benefit.

*'''Burning Wrath''': A magic missile with an explosion, which leaves a tiny AoE vortex that sucks nearby models inwards. Pretty bad vs armor, but can really mess up unarmored chaff, making it great against undead factions (or wood elf tree spirits). Has a good 300 range, and that vortex can slow enemies down for a couple seconds, but the chaos dwarf artillery fills this role and does it far better, meaning you probably won't see it much in multiplayer. On the single player side, it's overcasted version can be insanely good at destroying close range blobs.
*'''Dark Subjugation''': -8 leadership and -24 melee defence for 17 seconds. At 6 winds you're getting decent bang for your buck, but this is a pretty redundant spell that's really only useful against elite infantry and maybe especially tanky single entities, which the chorfs are already highly specialized at dealing with.
*'''Ash Storm''': Creates a very cool-looking circle in which everything in it becomes slower and more vulnerable to fire. It may seem expensive for what it does at 10 winds, but it lasts for a good 32 seconds, meaning there's really no reason to overcast it. The slow is situationally ok against fast factions, but timing it correctly means that all your fiery artillery and monsters get a 20% damage boost in the AoE, which can be pretty nasty in the right moments.
*'''Curse of Hashut''': It's essentially a worse spirit leech. Deals the same damage as the aforementioned spell, and has twice the range (though it doesn't increase when overcasted). At 11 winds of magic base (the same as overcasted spirit leech) it's pretty cost inefficient. Overcasting it costs a chunky 16 winds for a 5-second increase in duration. Pretty lame spell. in multiplayer, generally best to leave it at home.
*'''Hell Hammer''': It's basically Fiery Convocation with a narrower path and a bit more specialized against unarmored infantry, although it certainly does it's job against armored as well. It has a similar very long and noticeable startup, meaning you have to aim it properly, and against slow moving units, or risk wasting 16 winds.
*'''Flames of Azgorh''': Summon an underground eruption to make blobs nice and toasy. This spell is absolutely busted right now due to a bug (or simply inadequate playtesting) in that while it's meant for killing blobs of chaff, it can totally NUKE single entities reducing half the hp of even beefy lords/heroes in a single cast. This is likely because the projectiles are spawned under the floor of the map at a very narrow point in the casting radius, so if you aim right, every projectile will hit the entity without triggering the projectiles explosion which adds up to disgusting damage. Expect this to get patched in the future.
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2023-06-22T03:28:56Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Lore of Death */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Scrolls===

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

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

==Faction-specific Lores==

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

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
Summary of Strengths: Was a solid, but unspectacular swiss army knife lore with an awesome air snare and mediocre damage/healing/buff spells in WH2. Immortal empires turned everything around, the air snare only slows flying units but the fiery convocation got buffed into the stratosphere (see below).

:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. You'll want to use this on high value units like Sisters of Avelorn who can put out more damage than a fireball if they get an extra 2-3 volleys in.
*'''Apotheosis''': A single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 10 second duration. It doesn't provide as much single target healing as invocation of nehek or affect multiple targets like earth blood, but it's still a solid healing spell. The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. However, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillery they *might* get more use out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and hits flying units with a -60% speed debuff in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have some other units on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': The best wind spell in the game as of Immortal Empires. For a 15 mana cost, fiery convocation deals 35 damage per second of pure AP magic flaming damage in a straight line. In comparison, Wind of Death has an identical mana cost, smaller straight line AOE, and only deals 24 AP damage per second. Still, while it may be the most damaging wind spell, it's loooonnnggg (but awesome-looking) startup means that it's a much more risky cast. If you aren't using it on units that are solidly pinned down and have any mobility at all, they're going to dodge, and you'll have wasted a ton of magic reserves.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcasting increases the ability cooldown reset to a whopping 45 seconds which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case). Still, not a bad spell though, especially for Lizardmen who lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

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

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

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

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
Summary of Strengths: everything is good? seriously everyone knows how amazing it is. skip gaze of Nagash and curse of years probably but other than that its great, extremely versatile and powerful.
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons undead, what exactly depending on the lord. Most of them summon Zombies to tie down the enemy or block a charge, or Skeleton Warriors with swords when overcast, which isn't worth the cost as it won't do anything the zombies won't. Strigoi lords summon Crypt Ghouls, which should be used to inflict poison on as many enemies as they can before expiring, or Crypt Horrors when overcast, when you want something that actually does damage. Helman Ghorst has a unique version that summons Grave Guard with swords when you need to kill units and a Wight King when overcast, who won't have the chance to win any duel but can tie down a lord and give it quite some damage too.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': A great wind spell, but Immortal Empires nerfed it's damage and mana cost to be more in line with other armor piercing wind spells like pendulum and cracks call. You'll still get your money's worth out of it, just don't expect it to single handedly win battles like it could in Warhammer 1 and 2.

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

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

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
Summary of Strengths: 3 great damage spells with warp lighting as the standout, and a good lore attribute make this a very potent spell lore for damage. The ability to freeze flying enemies is situationally very good.
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': An AOE spell which roots flying units in place. Despite it's situational nature, it is absolutely vital that you take it whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Skaven have no other counter to units who can fly over blocking troops to get at the squishy weapon teams in the back. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them sitting ducks for your artillery and jezzails.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. That said you're best off skipping this spell because lore of plague is a more efficient source of cheap summons and grey seers are a rubbish lord choice. As a funny side-note: Given that Skaven only had 2 lores prior to the Clan Eshin release, this actually also is the thirteenth spell in the Skaven spellbook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh) (Warriors of Chaos)===
Summary of Strengths: An offense focused lore that excels in control and has some versatility in dealing AOE damage and buffing attack stats. The lore attribute is very strong and rewards using spells before charging in. It's biggest problem is competing with the Lore of Shadows, which has better buff and AOE damage spells.

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

*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. It appears to be a wind spell, is actually a small explosion line which does more damage closer to the cursor. Good way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute. Because it sends units flying on impact, you can blast an enemy right before a charge hits so they don't count as braced.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters. Use on enemy lords and monsters who are charging or are otherwise fighting back, the lore of Slaanesh has better spells to mess with targets trying to run away.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a friendly unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. Decent but buff spells have a hard time making their cost back. That and if you want a damage buff, an occam's mindrazor from the lore of shadows is probably better overall.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Causes a unit to rampage for 15 seconds or 30 seconds if overcasted. Also does some direct damage and reduces melee attack. Use it to force fliers to land and to cause enemies to rampage into bad matchups.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but your enemies will try to dodge it. Ideally, you'll want to root the enemy in place with other spells first so they can't get away. if you can hit a couple good targets its very powerful and high projectile strength means even monstrous units will really feel the hit.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. Combo it with slicing shards to root + nuke a blob, or use it to set up rear charges or to simply prevent enemies from counter charging. Keep in mind that Slaanesh's faction gets a global AOE snare spell that you can use back to back with an overcasted phantasmagoria to really freeze a group in place.

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===

Summary of Strengths: A balanced lore with a mix of healing, utility, and AOE damage spells. You'll generally want to skip the AOE spells unless you're playing with Skrag and want to boost his kill count to activate his Cauldron of the Great Maw buff.

*'''Braingobbler''': A -16 debuff to leadership to a single enemy unit. Highly situational, stack it with fear/terror or a rear charge to push a targeted unit's morale past the breaking point.
*'''Bullgorger''': Increases armor piercing damage by 25% and melee attack by +24 to a single unit. A good buff spell, ogres in general don't have good baseline melee attack and extra armor piercing damage is always useful.
*'''Bonecrusher''': Your first AOE spell. Skip it, it's hideously overcosted at 10 winds of magic per cast for a spell that does less damage and has a smaller AOE than warp lightning.
*'''Toothcracker''': An AOE +30 armour and 22% missile resist buff. Skip this spell, you really shouldn't be tanking missiles as ogres and the extra armor isn't significant enough to be worth it.
*'''The Maw''': A bigger, but ultimately disappointing AOE spell. Costs 20 winds of magic but does much less damage than cheaper spells like Comet of Casandora. Even more disappointingly, most of it's damage is non-AP and can easily be resisted by armored enemies.
*'''Trollguts''': Single unit heal. If you're taking the lore of the great maw, it's probably going to be for this spell. Grants the same % heal per second as other healing spells from other lores of magic, but lasts for a whopping 40 seconds (80 seconds if overcasted). Has a hefty cost of 16 winds of magic, so you'll want to reserve it for high value units like lords, stonehorns, and mournfangs.

===Lore of Hashut (Chaos Dwarfs)===

Summery of Strengths: a very offensive fiery lore that's all about hurting your enemies, either by broiling them to a crisp or weakening them. Some spells are quite niche, but all that fire weakness can really add up since many units in the roster have fire damage in some way shape or form. Total lack of support.

''Killing Fire (passive)'': Despite it's extremely dumb name, this passive basically turns your character into a mortis engine for 5 seconds, dealing a moderate amount of damage per second to all units within 55m. It would be pretty useless for most other factions, but the combined-arms approach of the Dawi-Zharr make this at least situationally useful. Lords like Drazoath probably get the most benefit.

*'''Burning Wrath''': A magic missile with an explosion, which leaves a tiny AoE vortex that sucks nearby models inwards. Pretty bad vs armor, but can really mess up unarmored chaff, making it great against undead factions (or wood elf tree spirits). Has a good 300 range, and that vortex can slow enemies down for a couple seconds, but the chaos dwarf artillery fills this role and does it far better, meaning you probably won't see it much in multiplayer. On the single player side, it's overcasted version can be insanely good at destroying close range blobs.
*'''Dark Subjugation''': -8 leadership and -24 melee defence for 17 seconds. At 6 winds you're getting decent bang for your buck, but this is a pretty redundant spell that's really only useful against elite infantry and maybe especially tanky single entities, which the chorfs are already highly specialized at dealing with.
*'''Ash Storm''': Creates a very cool-looking circle in which everything in it becomes slower and more vulnerable to fire. It may seem expensive for what it does at 10 winds, but it lasts for a good 32 seconds, meaning there's really no reason to overcast it. The slow is situationally ok against fast factions, but timing it correctly means that all your fiery artillery and monsters get a 20% damage boost in the AoE, which can be pretty nasty in the right moments.
*'''Curse of Hashut''': It's essentially a worse spirit leech. Deals the same damage as the aforementioned spell, and has twice the range (though it doesn't increase when overcasted). At 11 winds of magic base (the same as overcasted spirit leech) it's pretty cost inefficient. Overcasting it costs a chunky 16 winds for a 5-second increase in duration. Pretty lame spell. in multiplayer, generally best to leave it at home.
*'''Hell Hammer''': It's basically Fiery Convocation with a narrower path and a bit more specialized against unarmored infantry, although it certainly does it's job against armored as well. It has a similar very long and noticeable startup, meaning you have to aim it properly, and against slow moving units, or risk wasting 16 winds.
*'''Flames of Azgorh''': Summon an underground eruption to make blobs nice and toasy. This spell is absolutely busted right now due to a bug (or simply inadequate playtesting) in that while it's meant for killing blobs of chaff, it can totally NUKE single entities reducing half the hp of even beefy lords/heroes in a single cast. This is likely because the projectiles are spawned under the floor of the map at a very narrow point in the casting radius, so if you aim right, every projectile will hit the entity without triggering the projectiles explosion which adds up to disgusting damage. Expect this to get patched in the future.
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2023-06-22T03:22:58Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Lore of Death */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Scrolls===

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

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

==Faction-specific Lores==

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

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
Summary of Strengths: Was a solid, but unspectacular swiss army knife lore with an awesome air snare and mediocre damage/healing/buff spells in WH2. Immortal empires turned everything around, the air snare only slows flying units but the fiery convocation got buffed into the stratosphere (see below).

:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. You'll want to use this on high value units like Sisters of Avelorn who can put out more damage than a fireball if they get an extra 2-3 volleys in.
*'''Apotheosis''': A single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 10 second duration. It doesn't provide as much single target healing as invocation of nehek or affect multiple targets like earth blood, but it's still a solid healing spell. The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. However, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillery they *might* get more use out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and hits flying units with a -60% speed debuff in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have some other units on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': The best wind spell in the game as of Immortal Empires. For a 15 mana cost, fiery convocation deals 35 damage per second of pure AP magic flaming damage in a straight line. In comparison, Wind of Death has an identical mana cost, smaller straight line AOE, and only deals 24 AP damage per second. Still, while it may be the most damaging wind spell, it's loooonnnggg (but awesome-looking) startup means that it's a much more risky cast. If you aren't using it on units that are solidly pinned down and have any mobility at all, they're going to dodge, and you'll have wasted a ton of magic reserves.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcasting increases the ability cooldown reset to a whopping 45 seconds which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case). Still, not a bad spell though, especially for Lizardmen who lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

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

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

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

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
Summary of Strengths: everything is good? seriously everyone knows how amazing it is. skip gaze of Nagash and curse of years probably but other than that its great, extremely versatile and powerful.
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons undead, what exactly depending on the lord. Most of them summon Zombies to tie down the enemy or block a charge, or Skeleton Warriors with swords when overcast, which isn't worth the cost as it won't do anything the zombies won't. Strigoi lords summon Crypt Ghouls, which should be used to inflict poison on as many enemies as they can before expiring, or Crypt Horrors when overcast, when you want something that actually does damage. Helman Ghorst has a unique version that summons Grave Guard with swords when you need to kill units and a Wight King when overcast, who won't have the chance to win any duel but can tie down a lord and give it quite some damage too.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': A great wind spell, but Immortal Empires nerfed it's damage and mana cost to be more in line with other armor piercing wind spells like pendulum and cracks call. You'll still get your money's worth out of it, just don't expect it to single handedly win battles like it could in Warhammer 1 and 2.

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

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

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
Summary of Strengths: 3 great damage spells with warp lighting as the standout, and a good lore attribute make this a very potent spell lore for damage. The ability to freeze flying enemies is situationally very good.
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': An AOE spell which roots flying units in place. Despite it's situational nature, it is absolutely vital that you take it whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Skaven have no other counter to units who can fly over blocking troops to get at the squishy weapon teams in the back. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them sitting ducks for your artillery and jezzails.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. That said you're best off skipping this spell because lore of plague is a more efficient source of cheap summons and grey seers are a rubbish lord choice. As a funny side-note: Given that Skaven only had 2 lores prior to the Clan Eshin release, this actually also is the thirteenth spell in the Skaven spellbook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh) (Warriors of Chaos)===
Summary of Strengths: An offense focused lore that excels in control and has some versatility in dealing AOE damage and buffing attack stats. The lore attribute is very strong and rewards using spells before charging in. It's biggest problem is competing with the Lore of Shadows, which has better buff and AOE damage spells.

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

*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. It appears to be a wind spell, is actually a small explosion line which does more damage closer to the cursor. Good way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute. Because it sends units flying on impact, you can blast an enemy right before a charge hits so they don't count as braced.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters. Use on enemy lords and monsters who are charging or are otherwise fighting back, the lore of Slaanesh has better spells to mess with targets trying to run away.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a friendly unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. Decent but buff spells have a hard time making their cost back. That and if you want a damage buff, an occam's mindrazor from the lore of shadows is probably better overall.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Causes a unit to rampage for 15 seconds or 30 seconds if overcasted. Also does some direct damage and reduces melee attack. Use it to force fliers to land and to cause enemies to rampage into bad matchups.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but your enemies will try to dodge it. Ideally, you'll want to root the enemy in place with other spells first so they can't get away. if you can hit a couple good targets its very powerful and high projectile strength means even monstrous units will really feel the hit.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. Combo it with slicing shards to root + nuke a blob, or use it to set up rear charges or to simply prevent enemies from counter charging. Keep in mind that Slaanesh's faction gets a global AOE snare spell that you can use back to back with an overcasted phantasmagoria to really freeze a group in place.

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===

Summary of Strengths: A balanced lore with a mix of healing, utility, and AOE damage spells. You'll generally want to skip the AOE spells unless you're playing with Skrag and want to boost his kill count to activate his Cauldron of the Great Maw buff.

*'''Braingobbler''': A -16 debuff to leadership to a single enemy unit. Highly situational, stack it with fear/terror or a rear charge to push a targeted unit's morale past the breaking point.
*'''Bullgorger''': Increases armor piercing damage by 25% and melee attack by +24 to a single unit. A good buff spell, ogres in general don't have good baseline melee attack and extra armor piercing damage is always useful.
*'''Bonecrusher''': Your first AOE spell. Skip it, it's hideously overcosted at 10 winds of magic per cast for a spell that does less damage and has a smaller AOE than warp lightning.
*'''Toothcracker''': An AOE +30 armour and 22% missile resist buff. Skip this spell, you really shouldn't be tanking missiles as ogres and the extra armor isn't significant enough to be worth it.
*'''The Maw''': A bigger, but ultimately disappointing AOE spell. Costs 20 winds of magic but does much less damage than cheaper spells like Comet of Casandora. Even more disappointingly, most of it's damage is non-AP and can easily be resisted by armored enemies.
*'''Trollguts''': Single unit heal. If you're taking the lore of the great maw, it's probably going to be for this spell. Grants the same % heal per second as other healing spells from other lores of magic, but lasts for a whopping 40 seconds (80 seconds if overcasted). Has a hefty cost of 16 winds of magic, so you'll want to reserve it for high value units like lords, stonehorns, and mournfangs.

===Lore of Hashut (Chaos Dwarfs)===

Summery of Strengths: a very offensive fiery lore that's all about hurting your enemies, either by broiling them to a crisp or weakening them. Some spells are quite niche, but all that fire weakness can really add up since many units in the roster have fire damage in some way shape or form. Total lack of support.

''Killing Fire (passive)'': Despite it's extremely dumb name, this passive basically turns your character into a mortis engine for 5 seconds, dealing a moderate amount of damage per second to all units within 55m. It would be pretty useless for most other factions, but the combined-arms approach of the Dawi-Zharr make this at least situationally useful. Lords like Drazoath probably get the most benefit.

*'''Burning Wrath''': A magic missile with an explosion, which leaves a tiny AoE vortex that sucks nearby models inwards. Pretty bad vs armor, but can really mess up unarmored chaff, making it great against undead factions (or wood elf tree spirits). Has a good 300 range, and that vortex can slow enemies down for a couple seconds, but the chaos dwarf artillery fills this role and does it far better, meaning you probably won't see it much in multiplayer. On the single player side, it's overcasted version can be insanely good at destroying close range blobs.
*'''Dark Subjugation''': -8 leadership and -24 melee defence for 17 seconds. At 6 winds you're getting decent bang for your buck, but this is a pretty redundant spell that's really only useful against elite infantry and maybe especially tanky single entities, which the chorfs are already highly specialized at dealing with.
*'''Ash Storm''': Creates a very cool-looking circle in which everything in it becomes slower and more vulnerable to fire. It may seem expensive for what it does at 10 winds, but it lasts for a good 32 seconds, meaning there's really no reason to overcast it. The slow is situationally ok against fast factions, but timing it correctly means that all your fiery artillery and monsters get a 20% damage boost in the AoE, which can be pretty nasty in the right moments.
*'''Curse of Hashut''': It's essentially a worse spirit leech. Deals the same damage as the aforementioned spell, and has twice the range (though it doesn't increase when overcasted). At 11 winds of magic base (the same as overcasted spirit leech) it's pretty cost inefficient. Overcasting it costs a chunky 16 winds for a 5-second increase in duration. Pretty lame spell. in multiplayer, generally best to leave it at home.
*'''Hell Hammer''': It's basically Fiery Convocation with a narrower path and a bit more specialized against unarmored infantry, although it certainly does it's job against armored as well. It has a similar very long and noticeable startup, meaning you have to aim it properly, and against slow moving units, or risk wasting 16 winds.
*'''Flames of Azgorh''': Summon an underground eruption to make blobs nice and toasy. This spell is absolutely busted right now due to a bug (or simply inadequate playtesting) in that while it's meant for killing blobs of chaff, it can totally NUKE single entities reducing half the hp of even beefy lords/heroes in a single cast. This is likely because the projectiles are spawned under the floor of the map at a very narrow point in the casting radius, so if you aim right, every projectile will hit the entity without triggering the projectiles explosion which adds up to disgusting damage. Expect this to get patched in the future.
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2023-06-22T02:50:06Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Unit Roster */

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

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

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.
* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the four [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!

*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.

*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.

*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.

*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.

*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] army.

*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.

*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.

*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so than the Empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Deckhands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over.

===Universal traits===
*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.

*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.

*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.

*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.

*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.

*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.

*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

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

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard, your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes the best unit the roster cheaper, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame, it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.

*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

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

*'''[[Cylostra Direfin]]''': Clyostra is currently the only ethereal lord in the game. Does it make her as tough as Cairn Wraiths or Hexwraiths? You wish. She's your standard caster LL, with good access to the Lore of the Deeps. She holds up fairly well in combat, and can even take a Rotting Leviathan as mount. However, she comes with some cool boons that make her a force in her own right. She starts with a cursed Bretonnian Paladin that has the stats of a regular Paladin except that he is Ethereal and pretty much unstoppable early on. She can also summon Ethereal Grail Knights. Yes, you read that right. Summoned. Ethereal. Fucking. Grail Knights.
*:Unfortunately, her faction has by far the hardest start of any of the Vampire Coast Factions. She leads '''The Drowned''' on the small peninsula in the isthmus of Lustria, smacked in the middle between Morathi and Lord Mazdamundi. Unlike the other three VC factions, your initial situation is rather peculiar and you have to build a resonably good basis in Lustria before you can even think of raiding your enemies.
===Lords===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Admiral]]''': There is no sexism in undeath, you can either get a halberd wielding dude Admiral or a Cutlass and Pistol wielding lady Admiral. They make up for being the sole generic Lord option for your faction by being pretty good on their own; even more so if you put them on a rotting Promethean. Combined with their extremely potent spellcasting with options from the three best Lores in the game they make for terrifying opponents.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the Lore of Vampires to assist your Lords (especially the Legendary Lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.

*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.

*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.

*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale. Again, dealing damage isn't really what you want these guys for, bit if you have a little extra money in the budget go for it.

*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.

**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.

*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
In immortal empires these boys have finally got a worthy buff, adding ACTUAL ANTI-INFANTRY bonuses to their axes making them capable of shredding some of the better infantry in the game. More importantly, they had their health regen in melee doubled and can outheal damage taken when fighting fodder or when their formation is positioned so only a few models are actively taking damage.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.

*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.

*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.

*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions. That said, they can be effective against factions that don't have easy access to spells or magic damage, like dwarfs.
===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.

*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.

*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy Monstrous Infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.

*'''[[Maneaters]]''': That's right, Aranessa can recruit ogres at tier 3 ports on the Immortal Empires campaign map. This makes sense because they have [[Hats|Pirate Hats]]. While mobile monstrous infantry is a welcome addition to the coast's sluggish roster, she unfortunately only gets vanilla Maneaters, not ogre pistols, ironfist, or great weapon variants. Hopefully she'll get pistol Maneaters in a future patch, they would work well with the pirate + gunpowder themes of the Vampire Coast. Until then, you'll just have to settle for allying with Skragg and hiring ogres from him instead.

*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.

*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.

*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.

*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three cannons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.

*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.

*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.

*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.
===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.

*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.

*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.

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

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.

*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarfs| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': You are going to have a bad time. You know how Queen Bess is pretty cool, right? Well these guys can bring three of them if they feel like or slap one on an unbreakable train engine. Your slow and plodding zombies are going to get obliterated. Depth Guard won't fare much better, as Chaos Dwarfs excel at killing elite infantry. Your best hope is to rush them, something you're not normally the best at but it is something you can do. Bats, dogs, Deck Droppers, Mournguls (both the Haunters and the regular kind), Syreens, anything that can Vanguard deploy or move relatively fast. If you're going to bring Deckhands or Depth Guard go for the polearms, they're the only things that will slow down the dual weapon Bull Centaurs and the K'daai. Your best artillery choice is probably the Necrofex as Chaos Dwarf artillery is very good at wiping out infantry but not as good at focusing down big monsters. Plus you'll outrange the Blunderbusses with a Necrofex, meaning they'll have to dedicate more elite resources to bring down your shipwreck mecha while your Mournguls creep up on their Magma Cannons. Do 'not' bring the Gallows Giant, Chaos Dwarfs laugh at fire damage.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This will be an extremely unpleasant matchup for you. Don't even try to beat them in an artillery contest, fire rain rockets + doom balloons outclass any artillery you can field and unlike dwarfs, Cathay can seriously mess up your gunline with air cavalry and magic. Your best bet is to play like off brand vampire counts and go heavy on melee. Your newly buffed depth guard will tear Cathay's frontline a new asshole and between fel bats, mournguls, and scurvy dogs, you have the tools to keep them from getting shot to hell on the way in. Bringing a wind of death caster is also a good idea, Cathay is extremely susceptible to magic since their playstyle encourages keeping units in inflexible formations for harmony buffs. Also, hide some deck gunners in some forests before the battle starts. You'll need them to pop balloons and shoot up the dragon siblings/terracotta sentinels if your opponent is dumb enough to bring them.

*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.

*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.

*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.

*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.

*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.

*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can safely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.

*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.

*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. Even after their immortal empires update, this is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty limited sources of anti-large which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Now, they do have their new Chaos Chariots and Knights as of IE, so you'll need to tarpit them with zombie polearms (The Bloody Reavers RoR is also a great counter to their large stuff), but the rest of their army still moves like molasses and should only really catch you if you're lazy or get caught out of position. Luthor on his bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup with his pistol and magic resistance, but that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. The one strategy I'd avoid is a crab rush. Nurgle is gonna be great at tarpitting your crabs with their infantry and then summarily devolving them with halberds. Finally, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge ''if'' you're careful with your timing and aim.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.

*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, they can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necrosphinxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.

*'''Tzeentch''': You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournguls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.

*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).

*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.

*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2023-06-22T02:49:14Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Lords */

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

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

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.
* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the four [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!

*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.

*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.

*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.

*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.

*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] army.

*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.

*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.

*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so than the Empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Deckhands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over.

===Universal traits===
*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.

*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.

*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.

*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.

*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.

*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.

*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

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

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard, your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes the best unit the roster cheaper, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame, it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.

*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

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

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

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

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the Lore of Vampires to assist your Lords (especially the Legendary Lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.

*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.

*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.

*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale. Again, dealing damage isn't really what you want these guys for, bit if you have a little extra money in the budget go for it.

*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.

**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.

*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
In immortal empires these boys have finally got a worthy buff, adding ACTUAL ANTI-INFANTRY bonuses to their axes making them capable of shredding some of the better infantry in the game. More importantly, they had their health regen in melee doubled and can outheal damage taken when fighting fodder or when their formation is positioned so only a few models are actively taking damage.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.

*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.

*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.

*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions. That said, they can be effective against factions that don't have easy access to spells or magic damage, like dwarfs.
===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.

*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.

*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy Monstrous Infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.

*'''[[Maneaters]]''': That's right, Aranessa can recruit ogres at tier 3 ports on the Immortal Empires campaign map. This makes sense because they have [[Hats|Pirate Hats]]. While mobile monstrous infantry is a welcome addition to the coast's sluggish roster, she unfortunately only gets vanilla Maneaters, not ogre pistols, ironfist, or great weapon variants. Hopefully she'll get pistol Maneaters in a future patch, they would work well with the pirate + gunpowder themes of the Vampire Coast. Until then, you'll just have to settle for allying with Skragg and hiring ogres from him instead.

*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.

*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.

*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.

*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three cannons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.

*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.

*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.

*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.
===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.

*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.

*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.
==General Battle Strategies==
You are the [[Tau]] of Total War Warhammer. Sure you will fall apart extremely fast if the enemy can get into melee with you, but the hard part is going to be surviving long enough to get there in the first place. Coast have been the kings of the competitive meta ever since they came out... until their nerfs finally caught up with them and now they're considered decent but not unbeatable. There are plenty of people who pick up this faction for their old reputation only for it to turn out they can't actually protect a gunline to save their lives. However, a GOOD Coast player can be one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game, and here's how you become that:

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.

*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarfs| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': You are going to have a bad time. You know how Queen Bess is pretty cool, right? Well these guys can bring three of them if they feel like or slap one on an unbreakable train engine. Your slow and plodding zombies are going to get obliterated. Depth Guard won't fare much better, as Chaos Dwarfs excel at killing elite infantry. Your best hope is to rush them, something you're not normally the best at but it is something you can do. Bats, dogs, Deck Droppers, Mournguls (both the Haunters and the regular kind), Syreens, anything that can Vanguard deploy or move relatively fast. If you're going to bring Deckhands or Depth Guard go for the polearms, they're the only things that will slow down the dual weapon Bull Centaurs and the K'daai. Your best artillery choice is probably the Necrofex as Chaos Dwarf artillery is very good at wiping out infantry but not as good at focusing down big monsters. Plus you'll outrange the Blunderbusses with a Necrofex, meaning they'll have to dedicate more elite resources to bring down your shipwreck mecha while your Mournguls creep up on their Magma Cannons. Do 'not' bring the Gallows Giant, Chaos Dwarfs laugh at fire damage.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This will be an extremely unpleasant matchup for you. Don't even try to beat them in an artillery contest, fire rain rockets + doom balloons outclass any artillery you can field and unlike dwarfs, Cathay can seriously mess up your gunline with air cavalry and magic. Your best bet is to play like off brand vampire counts and go heavy on melee. Your newly buffed depth guard will tear Cathay's frontline a new asshole and between fel bats, mournguls, and scurvy dogs, you have the tools to keep them from getting shot to hell on the way in. Bringing a wind of death caster is also a good idea, Cathay is extremely susceptible to magic since their playstyle encourages keeping units in inflexible formations for harmony buffs. Also, hide some deck gunners in some forests before the battle starts. You'll need them to pop balloons and shoot up the dragon siblings/terracotta sentinels if your opponent is dumb enough to bring them.

*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.

*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.

*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.

*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.

*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.

*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can safely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.

*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.

*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. Even after their immortal empires update, this is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty limited sources of anti-large which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Now, they do have their new Chaos Chariots and Knights as of IE, so you'll need to tarpit them with zombie polearms (The Bloody Reavers RoR is also a great counter to their large stuff), but the rest of their army still moves like molasses and should only really catch you if you're lazy or get caught out of position. Luthor on his bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup with his pistol and magic resistance, but that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. The one strategy I'd avoid is a crab rush. Nurgle is gonna be great at tarpitting your crabs with their infantry and then summarily devolving them with halberds. Finally, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge ''if'' you're careful with your timing and aim.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.

*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, they can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necrosphinxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.

*'''Tzeentch''': You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournguls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.

*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).

*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.

*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2023-06-22T02:42:43Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Cons */

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

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

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.
* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the four [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!

*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.

*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.

*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.

*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.

*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] army.

*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.

*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.

*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so than the Empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Deckhands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over.

===Universal traits===
*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.

*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.

*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.

*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.

*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.

*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.

*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

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

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes cheaper the best unit the roster, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.

*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

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

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

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

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the Lore of Vampires to assist your Lords (especially the Legendary Lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.

*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.

*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.

*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale. Again, dealing damage isn't really what you want these guys for, bit if you have a little extra money in the budget go for it.

*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.

**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.

*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
In immortal empires these boys have finally got a worthy buff, adding ACTUAL ANTI-INFANTRY bonuses to their axes making them capable of shredding some of the better infantry in the game. More importantly, they had their health regen in melee doubled and can outheal damage taken when fighting fodder or when their formation is positioned so only a few models are actively taking damage.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.

*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.

*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.

*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions. That said, they can be effective against factions that don't have easy access to spells or magic damage, like dwarfs.
===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.

*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.

*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy Monstrous Infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.

*'''[[Maneaters]]''': That's right, Aranessa can recruit ogres at tier 3 ports on the Immortal Empires campaign map. This makes sense because they have [[Hats|Pirate Hats]]. While mobile monstrous infantry is a welcome addition to the coast's sluggish roster, she unfortunately only gets vanilla Maneaters, not ogre pistols, ironfist, or great weapon variants. Hopefully she'll get pistol Maneaters in a future patch, they would work well with the pirate + gunpowder themes of the Vampire Coast. Until then, you'll just have to settle for allying with Skragg and hiring ogres from him instead.

*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.

*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.

*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.

*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three cannons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.

*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.

*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.

*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.
===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.

*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.

*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.
==General Battle Strategies==
You are the [[Tau]] of Total War Warhammer. Sure you will fall apart extremely fast if the enemy can get into melee with you, but the hard part is going to be surviving long enough to get there in the first place. Coast have been the kings of the competitive meta ever since they came out... until their nerfs finally caught up with them and now they're considered decent but not unbeatable. There are plenty of people who pick up this faction for their old reputation only for it to turn out they can't actually protect a gunline to save their lives. However, a GOOD Coast player can be one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game, and here's how you become that:

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.

*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarfs| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': You are going to have a bad time. You know how Queen Bess is pretty cool, right? Well these guys can bring three of them if they feel like or slap one on an unbreakable train engine. Your slow and plodding zombies are going to get obliterated. Depth Guard won't fare much better, as Chaos Dwarfs excel at killing elite infantry. Your best hope is to rush them, something you're not normally the best at but it is something you can do. Bats, dogs, Deck Droppers, Mournguls (both the Haunters and the regular kind), Syreens, anything that can Vanguard deploy or move relatively fast. If you're going to bring Deckhands or Depth Guard go for the polearms, they're the only things that will slow down the dual weapon Bull Centaurs and the K'daai. Your best artillery choice is probably the Necrofex as Chaos Dwarf artillery is very good at wiping out infantry but not as good at focusing down big monsters. Plus you'll outrange the Blunderbusses with a Necrofex, meaning they'll have to dedicate more elite resources to bring down your shipwreck mecha while your Mournguls creep up on their Magma Cannons. Do 'not' bring the Gallows Giant, Chaos Dwarfs laugh at fire damage.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This will be an extremely unpleasant matchup for you. Don't even try to beat them in an artillery contest, fire rain rockets + doom balloons outclass any artillery you can field and unlike dwarfs, Cathay can seriously mess up your gunline with air cavalry and magic. Your best bet is to play like off brand vampire counts and go heavy on melee. Your newly buffed depth guard will tear Cathay's frontline a new asshole and between fel bats, mournguls, and scurvy dogs, you have the tools to keep them from getting shot to hell on the way in. Bringing a wind of death caster is also a good idea, Cathay is extremely susceptible to magic since their playstyle encourages keeping units in inflexible formations for harmony buffs. Also, hide some deck gunners in some forests before the battle starts. You'll need them to pop balloons and shoot up the dragon siblings/terracotta sentinels if your opponent is dumb enough to bring them.

*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.

*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.

*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.

*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.

*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.

*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can safely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.

*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.

*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. Even after their immortal empires update, this is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty limited sources of anti-large which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Now, they do have their new Chaos Chariots and Knights as of IE, so you'll need to tarpit them with zombie polearms (The Bloody Reavers RoR is also a great counter to their large stuff), but the rest of their army still moves like molasses and should only really catch you if you're lazy or get caught out of position. Luthor on his bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup with his pistol and magic resistance, but that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. The one strategy I'd avoid is a crab rush. Nurgle is gonna be great at tarpitting your crabs with their infantry and then summarily devolving them with halberds. Finally, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge ''if'' you're careful with your timing and aim.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.

*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, they can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necrosphinxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.

*'''Tzeentch''': You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournguls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.

*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).

*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.

*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2023-06-22T02:39:14Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Why Play the Vampire Coast */

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

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

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.
* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the four [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!

*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.

*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.

*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.

*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.

*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] army.

*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.

*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.

*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so then the empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Need Deckheands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over.
===Universal traits===
*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.

*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.

*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.

*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.

*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.

*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.

*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

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

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes cheaper the best unit the roster, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.

*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

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

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

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

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the Lore of Vampires to assist your Lords (especially the Legendary Lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.

*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.

*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.

*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale. Again, dealing damage isn't really what you want these guys for, bit if you have a little extra money in the budget go for it.

*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.

**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.

*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
In immortal empires these boys have finally got a worthy buff, adding ACTUAL ANTI-INFANTRY bonuses to their axes making them capable of shredding some of the better infantry in the game. More importantly, they had their health regen in melee doubled and can outheal damage taken when fighting fodder or when their formation is positioned so only a few models are actively taking damage.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.

*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.

*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.

*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions. That said, they can be effective against factions that don't have easy access to spells or magic damage, like dwarfs.
===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.

*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.

*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy Monstrous Infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.

*'''[[Maneaters]]''': That's right, Aranessa can recruit ogres at tier 3 ports on the Immortal Empires campaign map. This makes sense because they have [[Hats|Pirate Hats]]. While mobile monstrous infantry is a welcome addition to the coast's sluggish roster, she unfortunately only gets vanilla Maneaters, not ogre pistols, ironfist, or great weapon variants. Hopefully she'll get pistol Maneaters in a future patch, they would work well with the pirate + gunpowder themes of the Vampire Coast. Until then, you'll just have to settle for allying with Skragg and hiring ogres from him instead.

*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.

*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.

*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.

*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three cannons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.

*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.

*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.

*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.
===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.

*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.

*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.
==General Battle Strategies==
You are the [[Tau]] of Total War Warhammer. Sure you will fall apart extremely fast if the enemy can get into melee with you, but the hard part is going to be surviving long enough to get there in the first place. Coast have been the kings of the competitive meta ever since they came out... until their nerfs finally caught up with them and now they're considered decent but not unbeatable. There are plenty of people who pick up this faction for their old reputation only for it to turn out they can't actually protect a gunline to save their lives. However, a GOOD Coast player can be one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game, and here's how you become that:

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.

*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarfs| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': You are going to have a bad time. You know how Queen Bess is pretty cool, right? Well these guys can bring three of them if they feel like or slap one on an unbreakable train engine. Your slow and plodding zombies are going to get obliterated. Depth Guard won't fare much better, as Chaos Dwarfs excel at killing elite infantry. Your best hope is to rush them, something you're not normally the best at but it is something you can do. Bats, dogs, Deck Droppers, Mournguls (both the Haunters and the regular kind), Syreens, anything that can Vanguard deploy or move relatively fast. If you're going to bring Deckhands or Depth Guard go for the polearms, they're the only things that will slow down the dual weapon Bull Centaurs and the K'daai. Your best artillery choice is probably the Necrofex as Chaos Dwarf artillery is very good at wiping out infantry but not as good at focusing down big monsters. Plus you'll outrange the Blunderbusses with a Necrofex, meaning they'll have to dedicate more elite resources to bring down your shipwreck mecha while your Mournguls creep up on their Magma Cannons. Do 'not' bring the Gallows Giant, Chaos Dwarfs laugh at fire damage.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This will be an extremely unpleasant matchup for you. Don't even try to beat them in an artillery contest, fire rain rockets + doom balloons outclass any artillery you can field and unlike dwarfs, Cathay can seriously mess up your gunline with air cavalry and magic. Your best bet is to play like off brand vampire counts and go heavy on melee. Your newly buffed depth guard will tear Cathay's frontline a new asshole and between fel bats, mournguls, and scurvy dogs, you have the tools to keep them from getting shot to hell on the way in. Bringing a wind of death caster is also a good idea, Cathay is extremely susceptible to magic since their playstyle encourages keeping units in inflexible formations for harmony buffs. Also, hide some deck gunners in some forests before the battle starts. You'll need them to pop balloons and shoot up the dragon siblings/terracotta sentinels if your opponent is dumb enough to bring them.

*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.

*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.

*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.

*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.

*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.

*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can safely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.

*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.

*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. Even after their immortal empires update, this is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty limited sources of anti-large which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Now, they do have their new Chaos Chariots and Knights as of IE, so you'll need to tarpit them with zombie polearms (The Bloody Reavers RoR is also a great counter to their large stuff), but the rest of their army still moves like molasses and should only really catch you if you're lazy or get caught out of position. Luthor on his bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup with his pistol and magic resistance, but that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. The one strategy I'd avoid is a crab rush. Nurgle is gonna be great at tarpitting your crabs with their infantry and then summarily devolving them with halberds. Finally, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge ''if'' you're careful with your timing and aim.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.

*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, they can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necrosphinxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.

*'''Tzeentch''': You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournguls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.

*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).

*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.

*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2023-06-22T02:38:59Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Why Play the Vampire Coast */

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

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

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.

* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the four [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!

*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.

*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.

*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.

*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.

*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] army.

*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.

*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.

*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so then the empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Need Deckheands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over.
===Universal traits===
*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.

*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.

*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.

*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.

*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.

*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.

*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

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

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes cheaper the best unit the roster, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.

*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

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

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

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

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the Lore of Vampires to assist your Lords (especially the Legendary Lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.

*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.

*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.

*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale. Again, dealing damage isn't really what you want these guys for, bit if you have a little extra money in the budget go for it.

*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.

**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.

*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
In immortal empires these boys have finally got a worthy buff, adding ACTUAL ANTI-INFANTRY bonuses to their axes making them capable of shredding some of the better infantry in the game. More importantly, they had their health regen in melee doubled and can outheal damage taken when fighting fodder or when their formation is positioned so only a few models are actively taking damage.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.

*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.

*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.

*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions. That said, they can be effective against factions that don't have easy access to spells or magic damage, like dwarfs.
===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.

*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.

*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy Monstrous Infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.

*'''[[Maneaters]]''': That's right, Aranessa can recruit ogres at tier 3 ports on the Immortal Empires campaign map. This makes sense because they have [[Hats|Pirate Hats]]. While mobile monstrous infantry is a welcome addition to the coast's sluggish roster, she unfortunately only gets vanilla Maneaters, not ogre pistols, ironfist, or great weapon variants. Hopefully she'll get pistol Maneaters in a future patch, they would work well with the pirate + gunpowder themes of the Vampire Coast. Until then, you'll just have to settle for allying with Skragg and hiring ogres from him instead.

*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.

*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.

*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.

*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three cannons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.

*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.

*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.

*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.
===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.

*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.

*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.
==General Battle Strategies==
You are the [[Tau]] of Total War Warhammer. Sure you will fall apart extremely fast if the enemy can get into melee with you, but the hard part is going to be surviving long enough to get there in the first place. Coast have been the kings of the competitive meta ever since they came out... until their nerfs finally caught up with them and now they're considered decent but not unbeatable. There are plenty of people who pick up this faction for their old reputation only for it to turn out they can't actually protect a gunline to save their lives. However, a GOOD Coast player can be one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game, and here's how you become that:

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.

*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarfs| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': You are going to have a bad time. You know how Queen Bess is pretty cool, right? Well these guys can bring three of them if they feel like or slap one on an unbreakable train engine. Your slow and plodding zombies are going to get obliterated. Depth Guard won't fare much better, as Chaos Dwarfs excel at killing elite infantry. Your best hope is to rush them, something you're not normally the best at but it is something you can do. Bats, dogs, Deck Droppers, Mournguls (both the Haunters and the regular kind), Syreens, anything that can Vanguard deploy or move relatively fast. If you're going to bring Deckhands or Depth Guard go for the polearms, they're the only things that will slow down the dual weapon Bull Centaurs and the K'daai. Your best artillery choice is probably the Necrofex as Chaos Dwarf artillery is very good at wiping out infantry but not as good at focusing down big monsters. Plus you'll outrange the Blunderbusses with a Necrofex, meaning they'll have to dedicate more elite resources to bring down your shipwreck mecha while your Mournguls creep up on their Magma Cannons. Do 'not' bring the Gallows Giant, Chaos Dwarfs laugh at fire damage.

*'''Grand Cathay''': This will be an extremely unpleasant matchup for you. Don't even try to beat them in an artillery contest, fire rain rockets + doom balloons outclass any artillery you can field and unlike dwarfs, Cathay can seriously mess up your gunline with air cavalry and magic. Your best bet is to play like off brand vampire counts and go heavy on melee. Your newly buffed depth guard will tear Cathay's frontline a new asshole and between fel bats, mournguls, and scurvy dogs, you have the tools to keep them from getting shot to hell on the way in. Bringing a wind of death caster is also a good idea, Cathay is extremely susceptible to magic since their playstyle encourages keeping units in inflexible formations for harmony buffs. Also, hide some deck gunners in some forests before the battle starts. You'll need them to pop balloons and shoot up the dragon siblings/terracotta sentinels if your opponent is dumb enough to bring them.

*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.

*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.

*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.

*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.

*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.

*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can safely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.

*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.

*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. Even after their immortal empires update, this is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty limited sources of anti-large which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Now, they do have their new Chaos Chariots and Knights as of IE, so you'll need to tarpit them with zombie polearms (The Bloody Reavers RoR is also a great counter to their large stuff), but the rest of their army still moves like molasses and should only really catch you if you're lazy or get caught out of position. Luthor on his bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup with his pistol and magic resistance, but that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. The one strategy I'd avoid is a crab rush. Nurgle is gonna be great at tarpitting your crabs with their infantry and then summarily devolving them with halberds. Finally, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge ''if'' you're careful with your timing and aim.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':

*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.

*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, they can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necrosphinxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.

*'''Tzeentch''': You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournguls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.

*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).

*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.

*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:36:22Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Khatep */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and Necropolis Knights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves, the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves, the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the Khemrian Warsphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and Skeleton Horse Archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs, the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen, Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, Mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While Skeleton Archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened Dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyrrhic victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each resource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khemrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general are full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlement of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:35:08Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Settra */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and Necropolis Knights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves, the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves, the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the Khemrian Warsphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and Skeleton Horse Archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs, the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen, Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, Mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While Skeleton Archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened Dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyrrhic victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each resource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khemrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general are full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:33:56Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* General tips */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and Necropolis Knights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves, the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves, the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the Khemrian Warsphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and Skeleton Horse Archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs, the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen, Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, Mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While Skeleton Archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened Dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyrrhic victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each resource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khemrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:31:49Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* General tips */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and Necropolis Knights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves, the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves, the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the Khemrian Warsphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and Skeleton Horse Archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs, the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen, Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, Mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While Skeleton Archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened Dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyrrhic victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:30:03Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Faction Counterplay */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and Necropolis Knights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves, the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves, the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the Khemrian Warsphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and Skeleton Horse Archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs, the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen, Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, Mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While Skeleton Archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened Dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:19:18Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Faction Counterplay */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on Ironsworn or Fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your Liche Priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:17:51Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Faction Counterplay */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti Greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:17:24Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Faction Counterplay */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of Ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units, Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:11:01Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Monstrous Constructs */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (RoR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flame attacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like High Elf Phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:07:41Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Construct Infantry */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (RoR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (RoR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (ROR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flameattacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like high elf phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-22T02:04:40Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Infantry Units */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (RoR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (RoR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (ROR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (ROR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (ROR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flameattacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like high elf phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings

2023-06-21T18:36:22Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Cons */

This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Tomb Kings]].

==Why Play the Tomb Kings==
* Do you want to play an undead faction which is not totally villainous?
* You want to play an undead faction that is also blingy as fuck?
* Because you want to play not Egyptians and roll over everyone with chariots.
* Do you wish to be SERVED!?

===Pros===
*'''Constructs''': The reason you play them in the first place. Tomb Kings have among some of the best monsters in the entire game. Not only do they all have incredible armour values, but you have a monster that can fill any role that you need it to. From infantry killing power to ranged damage to blob destroyers to monster slayers, you have a construct that can do anything you need your army to do.

*'''Ranged''': You aren't the Vampire Coast, but you can dish out some good damage from ranged. Ushabti Great Bows shred anything they fire against and a Casket of Souls can destroy blobs on infantry that are giving you troubles. On the lower end of the price spectrum, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers are good budget options if you want ranged power without breaking the bank.

*'''Undead''': You get all the perks of being an undead faction. Your units are unbreakable, all cause at least Fear, and many cause Terror, and they are generally cheap, allowing you to swarm the field with spooky skeletons.

*'''Mobility''': Chariots, light cav, and some quick monsters mean you can be an elusive and fast faction. Sure, you won't outpace the likes of the Wood Elves or the Beastmen but you can run circles around many of your opponents and are the best of the three undead factions at the kite game.

*'''Realm of Souls''': Your main battle ability gives you healing as you take damage, allowing you to stay in the fight. It will also give you a free Ushabti summon to use when you fill the bar all the way, which you can use to swing any fight on the battlefield in your favor. In the third game Realm of Souls will fill twice but Ushabti remain one use only.

*'''Badass Soundtrack''': Your faction music is among the best in the game. Just look up ''I do not serve'' and ''City of Kings'' on YouTube and be blown away.

===Cons===
*'''Poor Infantry''': You are not an infantry faction, and will lose in that department unless you are fighting the worst of the worst when it comes to foot troops. Even Tomb Guard, your "elites" lose to a lot of other mid-tier infantry, so expect your constructs to do the heavy lifting.

*'''Lack of Flying''': All you got is Carrion and they're... Subpar. Don't expect to have control of the skies when bringing the boney boys.

*'''Subpar Healing''': You got ''some'' options in the form of Lore of Nehekhara and The Realm of Souls, but it won't allow you to keep up with Vampire healing or anyone who brings the Lore of Life and Realm of Souls won't work on constructs. You have the hardest time bringing troops back out of all the undead factions so casualties actually mean something here.

*'''Flammable''': If your opponent has fire damage or the Lore of Fire, expect them to bring it. All your Lords are weak to it and Lore of Fire is great at melting your infantry.

*'''DLC Faction''': While the Tomb Kings, perhaps ironically, have held up rather well while former DLC factions (like the Warriors of Chaos) have aged like milk in the sun, the Tomb Kings are still fully locked behind an extra paywall to play. It's hardly the worst thing to say about a faction, but players on a strict budget will really need to weigh their options before committing to the Tomb Kings.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]]

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''Settra the Imperishable (Khemri):''' The one true big bone pimp daddy is back to lead the Tomb Kings to glory once more. Settra has an excellent start location in the northern desert part of the Southlands with easy allies to your south and east with easy pickings from the Greenskins towards the northeast. You are all about growth and expanding Nehekhara as much as possible, curb-stomping any foolish Bretonnian or rival Tomb King that dares interrupt your conquest. Settra is among the easiest campaigns in the game due to his good growth and great public order bonuses, allowing you to keep expanding for longer.
:: Settra on the battlefield is a supercharged Tomb King who can acquit himself well in battle but is more suited towards buffing your army or wrecking your opponent's face with his mounts. You may take him on the Khemrian Warsphinxes that all Tomb Kings can ride but he is better on his pimped-out ride the Chariot of the Gods, which has so much mass it's almost impossible to stop. He can also buff Tomb Guard up to insane levels and can actually make them decent at fighting other elite infantry. Just don't expect him to solo Kholek Suneater on his own, he's not cut out for that here.

*'''High Queen Khalida (Court of Lybaras):''' The queen of Lybaras has risen to take her place on the Asp Throne but somehow ends up taking a road trip to the southern edge of Lustria. You're surrounded by Lizardmen in the beginning who will absolutely wreck your early skeletons with ease, so abusing Khalida's archer buffs is a must. Fighting through Lustria will be a slog due to unfavorable terrain for your preferred units but if you're diligent with your diplomacy you can get Teclis or maybe even the Skaven to ally with you. You have limited routes to expand but your archer game is godlike and with time, you'll be able to break out of the position.

:: Khalida herself is billed as a duellist Lord but her animations and statline hinder her ability to perform that role. Instead, you should let her hang back with the archers and give them all poison to pincushion anything that gets close to death, and counter-charge anything that gets close to your homies. You can take her on a Necroserpent which will make her more mobile and let you keep up with her buffed Necropolis Knights (if you get that far).

*'''Grand Hierophant Khatep (Exiles of Nehek):''' Having taken his oath of exile a little too seriously, Khatep finds himself on the west coast of Naggarond in some desperate quest to glean forbidden knowledge from the Dark Elf locals. Khatep's faction is by far the most magic-intense and if his day job doesn't convince of that then the massive Hierotitan that he begins with should. You have good tolerances to the terrain there unlike the other Tomb Kings factions but you will have to rely on your magic more to overcome the horrible quality of your troops compared to the Dark Elves. You will most likely have a small realm until you can tech up to your elite units but luckily for you there might just be enough contenders for Malekith's attention to the east to let you grow properly.

:: Khatep is one of the two caster lords the Tomb Kings have and like most caster lords he's squishy as fuck. Comes with a bound Vortex spell from the start (Sandstorm, which he can use three times per battle). Take him on a skeletal horse to improve his mobility but you may also elect to put him on a Casket of Souls, which curiously enough makes him the only artillery lord in the game. Due to the slow speed of the Tomb Kings forces, you should try to let the enemy come to you - that way you can fuck them up with your buffed casters better.

*'''Arkhan the Black (Followers of Nagash):''' The black sheep of the Tomb Kings, Arkhan the Black returns to Nehekhara to find his big daddy Nagash only to be slapped down by Settra by turn 50. His faction starts on the western coast of the Southlands surrounded by the Bretonnian crusade factions, Dwarfs in the mountains, and sneaky Skaven to the southeast. The upside of your faction is that you have additional limited access to the Vampire Counts roster to give you some proper fast troops like Dire Wolves and Hexwraiths. You also have diplomatic bonuses to other Vampire Counts factions in the game but that hardly matters when they're getting massacred by Settra before you can even get to them.

:: Arkhan is the other caster lord of the Tomb Kings but unlike Khatep he can actually dish out a beating with his sword. He gets the Lore of Death from the start which will greatly aid your battles with the Bretonnians and later the Dwarfs. He also has access to his own unique Skeleton Chariot mount that ignores terrain. All these assets make Arkhan a versatile lord with no real downsides, but no real upsides either.

==Units==
===Generic Lords===
*'''[[Tomb King]]:''' The only generic Lord the Tomb Kings have, which sounds disappointing but is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can get unique custom vanilla Tomb Kings via your research tree. Nevertheless, the average Tomb King is a mediocre combat lord that exists to buff your up army and little else. However, once you unlock their Warsphinx mount they become true terrors on the battlefield, able to take out almost any infantry blob by the simple action of walking through them. Just don't let them die and you'll be fine.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Tomb Prince]]:''' Your combat-oriented hero, and a solid one at that. Good close combat stats accompanied with the usual FUCK HEUG shield that all Tomb Kings warriors wield. Can be taken on a horse or a chariot.

*'''[[Liche Priest]]:''' Your basic caster hero, and in the lens of how the Tomb Kings work, bloody important at every stage of the game. May be taken with the Lores of Light, Death, Nehekhara, and Shadow, the last of which is unlocked by acquiring the appropriate Book of Nagash. ALWAYS take them on a horse, helps with their mobility greatly. As for which Lore to take, if in doubt take Light, but tailor your choice depending on your potential adversary. Nehekhara Lore is exclusive to Tomb Kings and is very useful to them as a whole.

*'''[[Necrotect]]:''' Even if you only have a single Construct in your army, take this hero. No exceptions. Your Necrotects heal and buff them, which will be key to getting the most of your stony boys. Use it as a combat unit once it runs out of healing. On a chariot he's a better combat unit than a Tomb Prince as Necrotects are anti-infantry, which is also what you'll be using chariots against.

===Infantry Units===
*'''[[Skeleton Warrior]]s:''' Your basic infantry. Due to the mechanics of the Tomb Kings, all your units have no recruitment cost or upkeep but come with unit caps and slow acquisition to temper your growth. Not these guys. You can recruit an unlimited number of these guys from any settlement at any level. Does that make them good? Sure. Should you use these guys? Hell no. Instead, you should be using...

*'''[[Skeleton Spearmen]]:''' These guys. The basic Tomb Kings infantry is there to hold the line for as long as possible and that added Melee Defense from being spears will keep these guys in the fight longer. An odd quirk is that due to their massive shields they have some of the best missile resistances in the game for their tier.
**'''King Nekhesh's Scorpion Legion (ROR):''' Despite only gaining Poison the Scorpion Legion are one of the more popular Tomb Kings RoRs due to their ability to sandbag big enemies extremely well while your monster snipers fire over their bony heads.

*'''[[Nehekhara Warrior]]s:''' Your mid-tier infantry and the guys who are actually meant to be dealing damage. Unfortunately due to their lack of shields, they get shot up easily. Try to avoid using these guys if possible - if you can't, use them to counterattack anything that is pressuring your frontline.
**'''Usirian's Legion of the Netherworld (LoL):''' Fixes the low armor problem by giving them Ethereal, making them a fairly durable frontline and damage-dealing unit in the early campaign. Of course, that makes them super vulnerable against vortex spells, but Tomb Kings infantry will suffer all the same so there isn't much difference.

*'''[[Tomb Guard]]:''' Your real elite infantry, but they suffer from low armor values that greatly holds them back from being a true frontline. They can easily mulch mid-tier infantry from most factions but will fail hard against real elite infantry.
**'''The Khepra Guard (ROR):''' A mix between Nehekharan Warriors and Tomb Guard, creating a unit that's good on the offense as they are on the defense. They do lose out on shields so try to keep them away from missile fire.

*'''Tomb Guard (Halberds):''' Previous unit but arguably more useful and important. They have Armor-Piercing and Bonus vs. Large plus the characteristic tough melee defense the Tomb Kings infantry have. Again let down by low armor but can fuck up any monster or cavalry unit if given the chance.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''[[Skeleton Archer]]s:''' Your only choice for foot archers and while they are subject to unit caps you'll get boatloads of these guys from merely having the basic barracks buildings constructed. Decent range but anaemic damage - no Armor-Piercing means they will have to rely on sheer weight of fire and caster buffs to kill anything.
**'''Blessed Legion of Phakth (ROR):''' Extra range and Armor-Sundering. They can often be the point men for the rest of your archers so that they can snipe key targets off the field in short order. Put Khalida near them for truly ridiculous levels of debuffing archer fire.

===Cavalry===
*'''[[Skeleton Horsemen]]:''' Fast, poor armor and easily spammable. Despite their availability, they're not all that useful aside from long flanking maneuvers to threaten enemy artillery.

*'''Skeleton Horsemen Archers:''' Actually useful mounted skirmishers that have exactly the same range as your foot archers but a much lower model count. A good pair of these can easily buy more time for your artillery and ranged units to shoot at the enemy.

*'''[[Nehekhara Horsemen]]:''' Your proper cavalry, but due to having swords excel more at diving into the rear of a unit and staying there to butcher the enemy than cycle-charging to victory. A niche unit that can potentially cause headaches for your opponents but their average defence can cause problems for you too.
**'''Storm Riders of Khsar (LoL):''' Like Tomb Guard on horses. Much stronger melee stats combined with the great speed that Tomb Kings light cavalry have.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s:''' Monstrous cavalry has never looked so beautiful. Armor-Piercing and Poison, count as constructs and have the high armor that comes with being constructs. The only downside is their relative slowness compared to other heavy cavalry counterparts.
**'''Venom Knights of Asaph (LoL):''' As if these serpentine juggernauts needed to be any stronger, this version of the Tomb Kings heavy cavalry punches harder to make your tomb-robbing enemies pay dearly.

*'''[[Necropolis Knight]]s (Halberds):''' Heavy lancers in all but name, excel at deterring monsters and another cavalry from getting anywhere near. They do lose their shields so be aware of missiles.

===Chariots===
*'''[[Skeleton Chariot]]:''' The signature unit of the Tomb Kings, and your stand-ins for shock cavalry. Despite their prominence to the Tomb Kings they are considerably fragile which makes cycle-charging extremely important for getting the most use out of them.

*'''Skeleton Archer Chariot:''' See the previous unit, except now with some light skirmishing ability. Keep in mind chariots have difficulty maneuvering around quickly so in some cases it may be better to get Skeleton Horse Archers for easier micro.

===Construct Infantry===
*'''[[Ushabti]]:''' Your basic constructs and your main assault troops. High armor, decent damage, once again keep those Necrotects nearby to keep them in tip-top shape. Retain their value well into the midgame and are fairly mobile.

*'''Ushabti (Great Bow):''' Ushabti with big fuckoff bows that act as the Tomb Kings' idea of self-propelled artillery. Very mobile, strong missile damage with low number of shots that excels at sniping cavalry at very long range and making mincemeat out of monsters. Can also fight decently in melee if required.
**'''Chosen of the Gods: (ROR)''' Before the Skaven beat them with their mortars of certain doom, the Tomb Kings had the best light artillery in the game in the form of these guys, whose attacks are transformed into AP cluster bombs that punch right through shields to eviscerate enemy infantry.

*'''[[Sepulchral Stalker]]s:''' Excellent monster-hunters with a short-range AP magical attack that can soften up monsters and gib cavalry before they close in, not that they'll want to because the huge halberds these monsters carry will carve them up in short order. Fragile against regular infantry and missiles, but thankfully they have Stalk and Vanguard so it's easy to keep them hidden.
**'''Eyes of the Desert (ROR)''': Stalkers with poison ranged attacks. It's not a huge upgrade, but your ideal engagement with Stalkers is for the enemy monsters/cavalry to be charging right at them when the snakes are braced. The poison slows those charging enemies down giving you time to chip away at their health before they crash into you wall of halberds.

===War Beast===
*'''Carrion:''' Your only source of flying and a crappy one at that. On most difficulty levels, they'll be beaten by artillery crews in melee, which says everything you need to know about Carrion.
**'''The Flock of Djaf: (LoL)''' An actual improvement over the baseline Carrion. Better health, better leadership, better everything. On top of all the stuff baseline Carrions have they have armor-piercing attacks and a special Death From Above bombing attack the LoL can execute on ground forces while airborne.

===Monstrous Constructs===
*'''[[Tomb Scorpion]]:''' This thing is one of the best units in the game and it's easy to see why. Obscene Armor, Vanguard Deployment, Armor-Piercing, Anti-Infantry, but most importantly it laughs at anti-monster tactics. Anti-Large infantry? It has unique and often-triggered burrowing animations that lets it avoid damage while still delivering the pain. Tarpits? Said burrowing animations make the monster come out in a different place from where it burrowed. Missile fire? With its Armor and Vanguard Deployment the enemy won't have time to damage it and might even fire right before it burrows. The only thing that can give it a hard time are other monsters.

*'''[[Khemrian Warsphinx]]:''' The Tomb Kings' resident danger kitty that strolls around the battlefield causing havoc wherever it goes. High mass, high anti-infantry AP damage, and pounce attack animations lets the Warsphinx blast through halberds and go wherever it damn well pleases. Tomb King lords can take them as mounts.

*'''[[Necrosphinx]]:''' THE monster-slaying monster in the game with a wide array of traits specifically designed to let the Necrosphinx mulch other large monsters with ease. Has unusually low Leadership so keep a lord or hero nearby to keep them in the fight.

**'''The Sphinx of Usekph (ROR):''' turn the monster killer into a greater monster killer. Higher stats with magic and Flameattacks to punish Regenerating monsters. On the same note not recommended against monsters with flame resistance like high elf phoenixes.

*'''[[Hierotitan]]:''' An unusual large single construct that, despite being magnificent in almost every regard, is really only suited to a select number of army compositions. Gives a generous boost to Winds of Magic, in addition, its bound spells has FRICKIN EYE LASER BEAMS as a basic attack and is the perfect instrument for terrorizing any poor foot soldier that gets in its way. On the flipside is horribly slow and usually a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|priority artillery target]] for your enemy.

*'''[[Bone Giant]]:''' Your other heavy artillery piece that excels at noscoping monsters and cavalry from a terrific distance. Has problems with lateral tracking so may feel frustrating to use at times. Despite its large size does only decently at melee so try to protect from enemy melee as much as possible.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Screaming Skull Catapult]]:''' Your main artillery piece and boy does it put in a lot of work for a simple <s>stone</s> skull thrower. Shots have a good splash radius and also cause leadership debuff on top of being magical. Can potentially send low leadership mobs routing after a couple of salvos.
*'''[[Casket of Souls]]:''' An even more brutal infantry-shredder for the Tomb Kings, with substantially higher missile damage and the ability to fire at any target it damn well pleases - literally. Buffs your Winds of Magic as well which is a nice bonus, and has unusually good armor that can let it tank some damage from a flanking unit if necessary. Don't look too close at it during battles if you've entomophobe.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
The Tomb Kings bring a healthy amount of diverse strategies and army compositions to the table and are only held back by a few glaring weaknesses that, to be fair, also affect other undead factions. Your weakness to fire and other magic can hinder the cohesive frontlines you are wont to build; your snail's pace infantry means either getting shot up easily by enemy artillery or a very defensive playstyle with artillery of your own to hold your ground. Tomb Kings can mix and match many tools to get the job done but finding that sweet spot will be your greatest challenge.

====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, alongside their various strengths, weaknesses, and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''' - Leave the Tomb Guard at home; most likely the Beastmen will bring lots of ungors and your skeletons can handle them just fine. They'll also bring Centigors with throwing axes and possibly Ghorgons to fight your constructs, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen who can whittle down their low-armor hides with arrows as they try to get into position. If any big monsters or cavalry do threaten your ranged units Sepulchral Stalkers can provide a nasty surprise for them.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Poor Bretonnia, having to fight a faction full of cheap AP anti-large undead blocks with monsters that will easily chew up their glorious knights. The Tomb Kings are positively terrifying in this matchup as you have plenty of tools to make those Bretonnian knights regret looting your tombs. The only real problems are their cheap flaming Longbowmen and hard-hitting Trebuchets, but even then it's not like they can threaten your constructs that badly. Your opponent may attempt to push home a charge on a weak flank or cycle-charge your infantry into oblivion - don't let them get away with it! Pin them down with Net of Amyntok or your Ushabti summon and punish them suitably.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''': Just give up. Chaos Dwarfs will destroy your lines with their superior artillery, and good luck relying on your constructs to get anything done if the chorf player knows how to screen their blunderbusses. Also all your heals will be be worth jack shit with the absurd amount of fire damage they have. Probably better to just hope your opponent doesn't know how to play the game. If you're intent on playing this out, maybe get a Bone Giant to snipe their artillery, Settra on his chariot, and try a mass chariot rush? Tomb Scorpion might also be mobile enough to break into the ranged stuff without getting eviscerated, and Ushabti greatbow RoR could put pressure on ironsword or fireglaives if they don't get melted by Lore of Hashut. In campaign try cowardly cheese tactics with your liche priests and necroknights. In multiplayer, just try to get in a little trolling before you die horribly.

*'''Grand Cathay''' -

*'''Dark Elves''' - Like the High Elves the Dark Elves have easy access to the Lore of Fire, which is going to be a problem for you. Their ranged units almost all have AP crossbows, which is a big threat to your constructs. Unlike the High Elves the Druchii have middling range on those crossbows, which means you can outzone them. They frequently bring Dark Riders with crossbows instead of ranged infantry, so invest in some Skeleton Horsemen Archers who will outrange them and have basically no armor to pierce so all that AP gets wasted on them. Otherwise go wide and cheap with your skeletons, same as with HE. Dark Elves rely a lot on overwhelming the enemy with their Murderous Prowess army ability, and aren't as good in a war of attrition, which is exactly what you want to give them. Thankfully their only big monster with fire damage is the Hydra. Your Necrosphinx, Stalkers, or Necropolis Knights with Halberds will trade well against all Dark Elf monsters except maybe the Kharibdyss, but the sphinx will definitely hold its own. Caskets and Bone Giants are still your friends here; your Bowshabti have the same vulnerabilities to the Druchii Bolt Thrower that they do to the HE Bolt Thrower, so maybe consider leaving them at home. Just shut down those AP missiles and for the love of Ptra watch out for Burning Heads.

*'''Dwarfs''' - Despite the wall of armor and artillery rape that daunts the lightly-armored skeletons of the Tomb Kings army, you have plentiful AP to deal with them. Your artillery is top-notch for dealing with Longbeard/Hammerer lines with their big splash radius projectiles while Tomb Scorpions again can quite easily deal with the lower model count regiments. Just be extremely careful of Giant Slayers and the Dwarfs' own AP artillery because they can be quite damaging against a construct-heavy comp. Don't ever bring Tomb Guard to this matchup, your infantry are mostly there to get killed so that your real heavy hitters like Necropolis Knights or Tomb Scorpions close in. Chariots will also have a hard time here with the general mass of Dwarf units making it hard to disengage after charges.

*'''Empire''' - In many ways, you are similar to the Empire in strategy but while you can send massive constructs their way to massacre at will, they will host a plentiful number of AP missile infantry and artillery to get rid of them. Your cavalry comps are about equal but the Empire's is more flexible while you still have the sheer threat of a chariot flank charge on their infantry to royally mess up their day. You will have to be more aggressive than usual to ensure the Empire doesn't exploit their artillery advantage to the fullest - bring Tomb Scorpions to attack from unexpected angles and horse archers or chariots to mess with their threat assessment. Khemrian Warsphinxes (with proper micro) are fantastic for crushing the Halberdier line the Empire will most certainly throw at you and don't be afraid to employ your own excellent artillery options to either snipe out their artillery or soften up their infantry for maximum rape.

*'''Greenskins''' - In contrast to the dorfs the Greenskins are relatively light on armor which means your regular archers can actually make a dent in them. Tarpit heavily with basic Skeletons and counterattack with any manner of construct you see fit - regular Ushabti work magnificently against many Greenskin infantry and a single Khemrian Warsphinx can be a massive headache for your opponent since the Greenskins lack a viable Anti-Large option. A duo of Ushabti Greatbows with one being the RoR version with shrapnel shot arrows can be a gigantic threat here since the regular one will be able to make mincemeat of any monsters the Greenskins dare field and the RoR one can be reliably used to snipe out elite infantry, and both can also serve as regular Ushabti murder machines if needed.

*'''High Elves''' - This is not a good matchup for you, primarily because the High Elves have a lot of easy access to fire damage, including the Lore of Fire. Burning Head can annihilate a front line of even Tomb Guard, as all your infantry have relatively low armor values. As a result you'll want to go super wide with skeletons and rely on quantity over quality for the infantry fight. Bolt Throwers, dragons, Sisters of Avelorn, all will threaten your constructs and lords with plentiful AP and fire damage. You do however have a lot more artillery options, so you may want to consider outranging them. Ushabti Greatbows are very vulnerable to Bolt Throwers so Caskets and Bone Giants might be better options. You'll want one or two anti-large constructs like the Necrosphinx or the Stalkers to deal with dragons and phoenixes going after your back line, but don't over-invest in them. Your best bet is to overwhelm the relatively fewer numbers of the Elves while shooting them to pieces.

*'''Kislev''' -

*'''Khorne''' - You're fucked. With flaming attacks out the arse and numerous high-AP anti-large units, You're the easiest picking of skulls to offer to the Blood God. Your skeletons are just food for Bloodletters and dual axe Khorne warriors, and your constructs will be shattered by Halberdiers, Minotaurs, Skullcrushers, and Bloodthirsters. You have nothing that can outrun their hounds and you'll lose the melee fight, so your only remaining advantage is range. Skeleton Archers, unless supported by the Blessed Legion of Phakth will accomplish nothing, it's all about your artillery, Ushabti greatbows, and Bone Giants. A Lore of Light mage with Net of Amyntok will ensure your Ushabti and Bone Giants will shoot down any Bloodthirsters, and they can reliably pick off cavalry before they charge you to death. Skeletons on their own won't hold the line long, so the best supporting construct is by far Tomb Skorpions, whose animations help them stay alive in combat; any larger construct will just be an easy target for the numerous anti-large options Khorne brings to the table. Of all the contenders in the Southlands Thunderdome, Skarbrand is by far the biggest threat to Settra, so try and get rid of him as soon as possible.

*'''Lizardmen''' - Lizardmen have access to a fair few tools that can make combating them a bit of a challenging prospect, but you do have a few select units that can and will ruin their game-plan if positioned carefully. Skeleton Spear won't win any fights against the Saurus or even Skink front lines, but they'll hold the line until the bitter end. Considering all the Fear/Terror the bigger monsters toss around, their ability to tarpit things cannot be undersold. Whilst they do so, this is where your key players will come in; Ushabti Greatbows, Sepulchral Stalkers and Necrosphinx Colossi. Ushabti Greatbows are the ideal and go-to choice for your monster-hunting needs and will safely outrange a majority of anything the Lizardmen will typically have on tap to retaliate with and aren't totally helpless in a fist fight. If you're feeling like setting up a good ol' fashioned Monster-Mash, Necroshinx Colossi can generally wreck the bigger beasties in a straight duel, just ensure no (Ancient) Salamanders are getting free shots on it while it does so. Speaking of, Salamanders, Solar Engine Bastilodons and Fireleach Bolas Terradons will be some priority targets.

*'''Norsca''' - Like the Beastmen Norsca will try to flank you with lots of speedy warhounds and monsters. Unlike the Beastmen, Norsca has no artillery and pretty weak range overall. Punish them from a distance with Greatbows then soak up their infantry charge with cheap skeleton hordes. Unfortunately this is another army with Lore of Fire so watch out for Burning Heads on your front line and Fireballs aimed at your characters. Despite their limited range Norsca has a lot of ways to dish out anti-large damage, so leave the big melee constructs at home in most cases and focus on ranged units. Thankfully most of your ranged constructs can at least defend themselves a bit in melee. Double Bone Giants is a solid option, they'll kick the crap out of Throgg, mammoths, Fimir, and most other Norscan monsters. If you're having trouble with Skin Wolves getting into your back lines a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers might help a bit, if you have the funds for them.

*'''Nurgle''' - Pincushion time. While skeleton archers shoot wimpy arrows with little AP, they do shoot a lot of them and Nurgle has little armor.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' -

*'''Skaven''' - Thank God, someone who doesn't have Lore of Fire. Expect tons of Clanrats and Skavenslaves, which you should counter with tons of Skeletons. Since all of your infantry cause fear you will probably win the wet noodle front line fight. Chariots will also help mow down tons of rats. Bring a few speedy units like Carrion or Skeleton Horsemen to shut down Skaven artillery and weapon teams. If you bring Ushabti Greatbows expect them to get focused down by Jezzails, though they may do some good work before crumbling. Tomb Scorpions can sometimes be useful due to haw difficult they are to pin down with ranged fire. The AP blasts of the Casket of Souls will tear through weapon teams.

*'''Slaanesh''' -

*'''Tomb Kings''' - The good news is you have Great Bows and Sepulchral Stalkers to deal with whatever constructs they bring. The bad news is... well, ''they'' are also Tomb Kings. This may be a race of who can shut down the other's big lads before they do the same. As with a lot of undead vs undead matchups a lot will depend on who can snipe the other's lords and heroes first.

*'''Tzeentch''' - Go light on infantry and heavy on constructs, Tzeentch doesn't have much of a frontline and he will effortlessly delete your mobs with the considerable amount of fire damage he has at his disposal. Bow Ushabti will be your best friend to punish cycle charge barrier abuse and force Tzeentch to close the distance.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Leave the big artillery and constructs at home, unless you need one as a Distraction Carnifex. The Vampirates can absolutely outshoot you in an artillery duel. The good news is their front line of zombies is basically made of wet tissue paper. This is the perfect time to break out the Tomb Guard, who will march right over the Zombie Pirates. For your ranged core you want to bring mostly archers, who will outrange handgunners or deck mobs, but keep a couple of skeleton spears in the back line to fend off hounds and bats. Chariots are excellent at running down Vampirate ranged units while Skeleton Horsemen can intercept their hounds. Consider bringing some Carrion to shut down the enemy artillery ASAP. One uncommon but dangerous counterpick the pirates might bring is Queen Bess. The Queen is expensive enough that it'll cut down their other ranged options, but if the player guesses correctly that you are bringing skeleton hordes the Queen's shots will quickly reduce them to bonemeal. If she does show up spread your front line as wide and as thin as possible to minimize the damage. This is the rare time it's useful to have one unit of Bowshabti or a Bone Giant as they can shoot Bess but her shots aren't as good against large targets. Otherwise you'll have to tie her up with horsemen and birds or focus fire her with archers. Watch out for Luthor Harkon, he's a very common lord pick and he will definitely try to assassinate your lord and characters.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - The Counts are renowned as a rush faction and you will have to weather the onslaught the best you can. Liche Priest with Banishment will be super useful here as well as your rapetastic artillery. For once your Nehekharan Warriors can reliably duel Grave Guard without fear of being shot up, but do be aware of the Winds of Death spam the enemy Vampire lord will likely throw at them. Sepulchral Stalkers (in particular the RoR version) can be amazing here with their ability to counter-charge any monster that gets close and reliably slaughter them.

*'''Daemons of Chaos''' -

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - Break out the Great Bows and go to town, they're equally good at shooting down big monsters and heavily armored Chaos Warriors. You'll want a few light and speedy units to fend off their Marauder Horsemen but otherwise the name of this game is crushing your opponent with heavy constructs and swarms of skeletons. The Necropshinx can take on Shaggoths, the Tomb Scorpion can tear apart Marauders, and the War Sphinx will just prance around like the big happy kitty it is. You can't bring all of these, but pick one or two plus the Ushabti and you'll be in a good place. As always Burning Heads and the Lore of Fire will be your biggest threat. That and Kholek. Bring Necrotects.

*'''Wood Elves''' - They're probably going to throw Dryads at your front line, go really wide with Glade Riders to get into your flanks, and use Waywatchers or Deepwood Scouts to avoid your artillery. Bring at least some artillery anyway to soften up their front line. They have no fire magic so Tomb Guard will easily take down the weakened dryads and push after the archers. Skeleton Horsemen and Skeleton Horsemen Archers will help zone out their light cav and skirmishers, but if they push through eventually a unit of Stalkers can help protect your back line. Once their archers are visible concentrate your fire on them, they're usually the biggest threat. On the off hand chance they bring a dragon or other large monster (trees aren't out of the question, you don't have Lore of Fire either) having a Necrosphinx in reserve can be very useful, though you probably don't need both a sphinx and the Stalkers.

==Campaign strategies==

===General tips===
* '''Global Recruitment will win you games''': The optimal start for any Tomb King is to fight whatever army is on your doorstep them immediately go into either your starting settlement or enter Entombed stance, either way you want access to Global Recruitment to spend the first 2 turns simply filling your army with troops ASAP in fact this is more important than fighting your starting enemy, if you have to choose one then choose global recruitment. Global recruitment takes twice as long but doesn't cost anything because you're playing Kangz, which is huge. Do this after a pyric victory has wiped out most of the units in your army too and you'll refill your armies rapidly. Otherwise, it will take you too long to fill your armies and they AI will curbstomp you

* '''Always build a resource building if you can''': The Tomb Kings's Mortuary Cult means that you will need access to at least one of each ressource building if you want to access the full range of things to create, parts of your victory condition requires you to craft things too. Which brings us to...

* '''Trade deals are your friends''': Let's not mince words, your economy is ''shit'', and while you don't pay upkeep or recruitment costs, your buildings are very expensives. You'll gain money raiding and fighting, but trade will also be an important part of your revenue stream. Also, it will give you access to resources you may not produce at the moment (good luck making wine in the middle of the fucking desert).

* '''An army full of trash units is better than no army''': You may have hit your best units' cap with your current armies, but that's no reason to not recruit another one as soon as possible and fill it full of skeletons spearmen/warriors, since you have no recruitment or upkeep costs whatsoever. Even if you don't need it for fights, you can always use it to raid, as bait for your other army in Ambush stance, to maintain public order, to drown the enemy in bodies, ...

* '''Slow and steady win the race''' : You won't expand quickly. Whether it's because you need to wait to recruit more units in global recruitment, or until the place you've conquered is properly built up before pushing forward, this is not a campaign where you will be taking a city every turn. Tomb Kings rebellions are ''nasty'' if you let your Public Order get too low, so you'll also have that to keep in mind before moving on to conquering your next city.

* '''Keep your starting construct:''' While everyone in the games start with a high-tier unit in their army, you can usually manage if you lose them. Not so much here, in line with the above points. Each Legendary Lord start with a construct in their army (Khatep with a Hierotitan, Arkhan with a Tomb Scorpion, Settra with a Khermrian Warsphinx, Khalida with Sepulchral Stalkers). You will not be able to replace them for a ''long'' time if you ever lose them, what's with Tomb Kings' incredibly low growth rate and money problems, and they are incredibly useful until you reach tier IV.

===Specific campaigns advices===
====Settra====
* Early on in the campaign you can get decent value from sword and board skellies when fighting other Tomb Kings or TikTaq'to's skinks, as the mosh pits are decided by morale victories more often than not.
* Conquering Zandri should be a top priority, since it gives you quick and easy access to a port that you can utilize for trade with factions that are half a continent away. And as mentioned above, trade is your life blood.
* The same goes for Galbaraz on Mortal Empires, which unlocks a unique building at tier 3 that gives a whopping 1000 gold per turn. The Badlands in general for full of amazing unique buildings for the Tomb Kings.
* You have to decide very early on if you want to let the Errantry War factions live or destroy them, as Repanse is the only one not on friendly terms with you. After she confederates them, your western flank will have serious problems, unless you ally them.
* If you have a spare army, send it to raiding duty at Nagash's Black Pyramid, which yields a nice 300-500 gold for free each turn. The Sentinels are hardcoded to never retaliate, so there is no harm whatsoever in doing so.

====Khatep====
* The Sisters of Twilight are your best friends early on. Get a trade deal and non-agression pact with them. They'll help you in keeping Morathi and/or Malekith away from you for a bit, and be of great help when you want to take the fight to them.
* (Mortal Empires only:) The Sisters and Alith Anar may declare war on each other at some point, but they should leave you alone (and sign peace at some point). Between them, they'll keep Morathi busy long enough for you to focus on Malekith.
* (Mortal Empires:) Your very first turns should spent rushing south to grab the south settlment of your starting province, otherwise it'll be snatched by the Sisters and/or Alith Anar, leaving you with you one fewer town and no provincial order.
* (Vortex:) No Alith Anar to help you here, so you're gonna need to beat up Morathi yourself. You can rush toward Quintex immediately or complete your province then rush to her if you want, but you need to take her out fast.

====Khalida====
*(Mortal Empires Only) Try your best to be friends with Kroq Gar. You do NOT want to be fighting Saurus spam early and he will secure your southern border for you so you can focus on Queek.

====Arkhan====
* See the above about taking it slow? With Arkhan you'll be even slower, because you combine the Tomb Kings' slow growth with the fact that everyone hates you.
* (Mortal Empires) Now that Repanse has taken over the minor faction Bretonnians to your north, Arkhan is looking at what may be the single shittiest start position in the game. Either tech into stuff that can fight the Bretonnians ''fast'' or settle in for a few dozen turns of waiting for pop growth to bring you monsters. Your big early speed bumps are going to be Repanse and Henri; it's going to be a while before you have anything specialized for messing with tough Lords. Consider picking up an early Tomb Prince and speccing him out as a hero duelist.
* Get a Casket of Souls ASAP. It'll be useful against the Bretonnian chaff you'll face early game, and ''incredibly useful'' if/when the nearby Dwarfs declare war on you.

{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T18:28:48Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Moulder */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their weapon teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Ungodly amounts of armour, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but Cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings Lore of Yin and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While Orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for Goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of Orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but Goblin Wolf Riders and Forest Goblin Spider Riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that Greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing Skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those Dragons, pin the Elven cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns, Ratling guns, Ratling guns. playing the missile game against Kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, Kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the Bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring Gutter Runners and pray he didn't bring too many Furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of Heroes or Rat Ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, Howling Warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for Ratling Guns. Demolish Nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. A very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. Ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough Skavenslaves. Ratling Guns and Jezzails will shred through the low-armour Ogres. The biggest threat to you are their Gorgers. Swamp the Ogres with chaff and rip them apart. I wouldn't recommend the kiting game with Gutter Runners as Sabretusks and Gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their Lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armour piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armour on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by Gutter Runner Slingers or blended by Doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotect to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their Screaming Skull Catapult, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers, Flamers, Flamers, bring Jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring Rat Ogres and other mobile units, making sure Tzeentch never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause Fear and Terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mournghuls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the Fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and Wolf Rats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored Elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayers will kill virtually any Elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their Great Eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through Dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal Empires''' In Immortal Empires you start 1 region away from Skarbrand. Not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. More seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards Lybaras and Kroq-Gar as you don't have ANY options to counter Khorne's basic Bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercities are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens has a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the Asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances (and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring Assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilens and Rictus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the Warlock Engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilens) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by Warlock Engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packmasters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has Moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, Packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 Moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of Wolf Rats with AP and a pack of poison Wolf Rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for Moulder units. At level 16 they get a Brood Horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any Moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a Brood Horror mount).

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the Moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any Skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T18:25:14Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Skryre */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their weapon teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Ungodly amounts of armour, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but Cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings Lore of Yin and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While Orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for Goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of Orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but Goblin Wolf Riders and Forest Goblin Spider Riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that Greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing Skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those Dragons, pin the Elven cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns, Ratling guns, Ratling guns. playing the missile game against Kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, Kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the Bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring Gutter Runners and pray he didn't bring too many Furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of Heroes or Rat Ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, Howling Warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for Ratling Guns. Demolish Nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. A very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. Ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough Skavenslaves. Ratling Guns and Jezzails will shred through the low-armour Ogres. The biggest threat to you are their Gorgers. Swamp the Ogres with chaff and rip them apart. I wouldn't recommend the kiting game with Gutter Runners as Sabretusks and Gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their Lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armour piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armour on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by Gutter Runner Slingers or blended by Doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotect to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their Screaming Skull Catapult, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers, Flamers, Flamers, bring Jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring Rat Ogres and other mobile units, making sure Tzeentch never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause Fear and Terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mournghuls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the Fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and Wolf Rats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored Elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayers will kill virtually any Elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their Great Eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through Dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal Empires''' In Immortal Empires you start 1 region away from Skarbrand. Not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. More seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards Lybaras and Kroq-Gar as you don't have ANY options to counter Khorne's basic Bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercities are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens has a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the Asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances (and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring Assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilens and Rictus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the Warlock Engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilens) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by Warlock Engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packmasters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T18:22:11Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Pestilens */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their weapon teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Ungodly amounts of armour, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but Cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings Lore of Yin and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While Orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for Goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of Orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but Goblin Wolf Riders and Forest Goblin Spider Riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that Greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing Skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those Dragons, pin the Elven cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns, Ratling guns, Ratling guns. playing the missile game against Kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, Kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the Bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring Gutter Runners and pray he didn't bring too many Furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of Heroes or Rat Ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, Howling Warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for Ratling Guns. Demolish Nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. A very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. Ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough Skavenslaves. Ratling Guns and Jezzails will shred through the low-armour Ogres. The biggest threat to you are their Gorgers. Swamp the Ogres with chaff and rip them apart. I wouldn't recommend the kiting game with Gutter Runners as Sabretusks and Gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their Lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armour piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armour on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by Gutter Runner Slingers or blended by Doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotect to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their Screaming Skull Catapult, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers, Flamers, Flamers, bring Jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring Rat Ogres and other mobile units, making sure Tzeentch never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause Fear and Terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mournghuls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the Fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and Wolf Rats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored Elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayers will kill virtually any Elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their Great Eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through Dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal Empires''' In Immortal Empires you start 1 region away from Skarbrand. Not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. More seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards Lybaras and Kroq-Gar as you don't have ANY options to counter Khorne's basic Bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercities are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens has a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packmasters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T18:21:02Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Mors */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their weapon teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Ungodly amounts of armour, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but Cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings Lore of Yin and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While Orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for Goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of Orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but Goblin Wolf Riders and Forest Goblin Spider Riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that Greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing Skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those Dragons, pin the Elven cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns, Ratling guns, Ratling guns. playing the missile game against Kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, Kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the Bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring Gutter Runners and pray he didn't bring too many Furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of Heroes or Rat Ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, Howling Warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for Ratling Guns. Demolish Nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. A very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. Ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough Skavenslaves. Ratling Guns and Jezzails will shred through the low-armour Ogres. The biggest threat to you are their Gorgers. Swamp the Ogres with chaff and rip them apart. I wouldn't recommend the kiting game with Gutter Runners as Sabretusks and Gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their Lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armour piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armour on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by Gutter Runner Slingers or blended by Doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotect to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their Screaming Skull Catapult, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers, Flamers, Flamers, bring Jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring Rat Ogres and other mobile units, making sure Tzeentch never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause Fear and Terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mournghuls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the Fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and Wolf Rats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored Elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayers will kill virtually any Elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their Great Eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through Dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal Empires''' In Immortal Empires you start 1 region away from Skarbrand. Not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. More seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards Lybaras and Kroq-Gar as you don't have ANY options to counter Khorne's basic Bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packmasters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T02:45:24Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Moulder */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings 'yin' lore of magic and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns,Ratling guns,Ratling guns. playing the missile game against kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring gutter runners and pray he didn't bring too many furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of heroes or rat ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, howling warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for ratling guns. Demolish nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. a very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough skavenslaves. ratling guns and jezzails will shred through the low-armor ogres. your biggest threat is gorgers. swamp the ogres with chaff and rip them apart. i wouldn't reccomend the kiting game with gutter runners as sabretusks and gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armor piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armor on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by gutter runner slingers or blended by doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers,Flamers,Flamers bring jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring rat ogres and other mobile units, making sure tzeench never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal empires''' In immortal empires you start 1 region away from skarbrand. not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. more seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards lybaras and kroq-gar as you don't have ANY options to counter khorne's basic bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packmasters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T02:36:36Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Monsters & Chariots */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry and armour smashers in the game and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings 'yin' lore of magic and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns,Ratling guns,Ratling guns. playing the missile game against kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring gutter runners and pray he didn't bring too many furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of heroes or rat ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, howling warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for ratling guns. Demolish nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. a very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough skavenslaves. ratling guns and jezzails will shred through the low-armor ogres. your biggest threat is gorgers. swamp the ogres with chaff and rip them apart. i wouldn't reccomend the kiting game with gutter runners as sabretusks and gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armor piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armor on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by gutter runner slingers or blended by doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers,Flamers,Flamers bring jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring rat ogres and other mobile units, making sure tzeench never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal empires''' In immortal empires you start 1 region away from skarbrand. not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. more seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards lybaras and kroq-gar as you don't have ANY options to counter khorne's basic bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T02:35:01Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Missile Troops */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of Immortal Empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces), they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry in the game and armour smashers and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings 'yin' lore of magic and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns,Ratling guns,Ratling guns. playing the missile game against kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring gutter runners and pray he didn't bring too many furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of heroes or rat ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, howling warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for ratling guns. Demolish nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. a very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough skavenslaves. ratling guns and jezzails will shred through the low-armor ogres. your biggest threat is gorgers. swamp the ogres with chaff and rip them apart. i wouldn't reccomend the kiting game with gutter runners as sabretusks and gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armor piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armor on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by gutter runner slingers or blended by doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers,Flamers,Flamers bring jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring rat ogres and other mobile units, making sure tzeench never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal empires''' In immortal empires you start 1 region away from skarbrand. not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. more seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards lybaras and kroq-gar as you don't have ANY options to counter khorne's basic bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T02:02:04Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Heroes */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of immortal empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces) they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry in the game and armour smashers and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings 'yin' lore of magic and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns,Ratling guns,Ratling guns. playing the missile game against kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring gutter runners and pray he didn't bring too many furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of heroes or rat ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, howling warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for ratling guns. Demolish nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. a very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough skavenslaves. ratling guns and jezzails will shred through the low-armor ogres. your biggest threat is gorgers. swamp the ogres with chaff and rip them apart. i wouldn't reccomend the kiting game with gutter runners as sabretusks and gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armor piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armor on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by gutter runner slingers or blended by doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers,Flamers,Flamers bring jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring rat ogres and other mobile units, making sure tzeench never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal empires''' In immortal empires you start 1 region away from skarbrand. not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. more seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards lybaras and kroq-gar as you don't have ANY options to counter khorne's basic bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven

2023-06-21T01:56:48Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Legendary Lords and Subfactions */

{{Topquote|Rikka-rak! (Kill-slay!)|Game battle chant for Skaven}}
==Why play Skaven==
*Because you are a backstabbing bastard that cares little about the lives of your very numerous subjects, your basic infantry are literally slaves which you will sacrifice in droves to win a slight tactical advantage.
*You like bringing down classic high fantasy tropes with the power of raw industrial might, like Saruman, if Saruman was high on warpstone, which your characters certainly are.
*Talking about it your characters are a mix of different degrees of Dick Dastardly, Starscream, Frollo, the Brain, Dr. Evil and Zapp Brannigan, with more than a generous dose of the Nazis for good measure. (Except for Queek and Goritch, who are totally ax-crazy).
*Even your most basic Skaven is by all standards batshit insane and CA's Voice Acting is spot on.
*You are an opportunist that takes advantage of other factions being distracted and like making plots, just imagine the previously mentioned villains if they actually didn't have to lose due to the heroes' plot armor.
*[[DOOMWHEELS]]!!!
*Skaven are entirely unique to Warhammer, from their cool s(k)avenger ramshackle constructs, eviler-cult techno-sorcery to their pants-on-head crazy characters and their right-on-spot OST in no other setting is there anything quite like them, you will enjoy playing as them while cackling madly as you bring down your enemies in the must underhanded way possible YES-YES!
*[[Awesome|IKIT CLAW HAS FUCKING NUKES]]!!

===Pros===
*'''Disruption''': From summons to cheap skirmishers and tarpits, no other faction in the game is as good as Skaven at disrupting your enemies strategy. You have harassment with Eshin units, Wolf Rats and Brood Horrors, a ton of summons and powerful magic and the most powerful ranged arsenal in the game. Skaven are the bane of any faction that likes to stick together and profits from synergies in their rosters like Vampire Coast and Cathay due to how many ways they have at their disposal to fuck with those synergies and nullify them.
*'''Numbers''': Even at the highest tiers, you will outnumber your enemy easily. Even higher tier infantry units outnumber every enemy unit and you have the units with the highest base model count in the game. What is more, you can even summon more troops through spells and special abilities, you can literally bring 3 or more additional units of various tier degrees even when having your stack already filled to max capability, only Vampires Counts could dare to match you in terms of how many extra-bodies you can throw at the enemy.
*'''Fast Infantry''': Your basic infantry may not be the bravest, toughest, or killiest. But an average movement of over 40 speed means they can keep up with the likes of beastmen and wood elves and makes them particularly well suited for closing the distance with enemy gunlines and running down broken enemies.
*'''Firepower''': Your ranged units are easily unsurpassed by any other faction, this goes for your missile infantry as well as your artillery. Skaven have the strongest ranged roster in the entire game, (suck it, Elf-things), and don't necessarily need a lot of micro to make the most out of them. Lolwut cannons and magic fireballs you say? Here be gattling cannons, portable flamethrowers, anti-materiel sniper rifles, biological ammunition artillery, chemical cluster mortars, arc-lightning weaponry and tactical nukes!
*'''Ambushes''': Your normal movement stance on the campaign map lets you ambush enemy armies on the attack.
*'''Cost''': Everything you have is extremely cost-efficient and your melee infantry in particular is dirt cheap.
*'''Under-Empire''': You can establish hidden bases all over the world, siphoning other factions income into your pockets as well do some really crazy shit with this mechanic.
*'''Flexibility on the campaign map''': Skaven have by far the most tools on the overworld to shift the odds the AI throws at you in your favor, and being a proper Skaven player, you weren't really interested in a fair fight anyways.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': Skaven are tied with the Lizardmen for having the highest number of supplemental DLC Lord Packs out of every other faction in the game. With a grand total of 3 separate packs, each introducing a handful of other units to further supplement your forces, you won't ever find yourself wanting for diversity.

===Cons===
*'''DLC is mandatory''': The big issue. The "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC is absolutely mandatory to make your faction work well on the battlefield; your roster will lack essential units like Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails without it.
*'''Sooo much DLC''': A continuation of the first point; you need to purchase three separate DLC Lord packs if you want access to the entire Skaven unit roster. You can just get by with ''only'' "The Prophet and the Warlock" if you ''just'' need solid workhorse units, but those other AI Skaven factions will taunt you with all the shiny toys you didn't get around to buying. And let's be real here, Thanquol is coming in game 3 and there's no way we're getting him for free, so with potentially 4 DLC across 2 different games you'd best be prepared because the Great Horned Rat needs your wallet.
*'''Morale''': Get used to hearing "BACK UNDERGROUND!", "SCARPER! FLEE!" and "SH-SHAMEFUL DISPLAY!" because Skaven Leaderships is generally quite low. Most skaven infantry will break before their counterparts from other factions will.
*'''Bad Melee''': You aren't going to be winning a straight up infantry fight against... well anybody with decent infantry to be honest. Even your elite rats only match up to other faction's mid tier infantry. Combine this with their horrible leadership and Skaven infantry won't accomlish much on their own.
*'''Slow Economy''': While many of your baseline troops are dirt cheap, your crazy weapons are not and your economy needs some time to get going and you will be overshadowed in terms of money by most other factions in your general vicinity. Special attention needs to go to your food economy, which is easily one of the biggest pitfalls an unexperienced Skaven player can fall into. Once you have some provinces under your belt, you can start bringing in the cash.
*'''Nonexistent Air Force''': Though you aren't totally helpless against aerial units, thanks to your plethora of missile units, you're not exactly able to contest the skies. With absolutely no flying units of your own, you will need to keep one eye peeled on the sky. Even units like Harpies and Fell Bats can cause some mayhem if they manage to swarm your Ratling Gunners while units like Pegasus Knights and Ripperdactyls will eviscerate anything they manage to dive onto. Perhaps one of the biggest threats, however, will be the enemy spellcasters mounted on Dragons/Eagles/Griffons/Terradons who can rather easily juke incoming fire while dropping vortex spells all over your forces. You'll need a plan to deal with them if you don't want to take massive casualties.
*'''Hard to play''': You need at least a basic grip at how the game works to play Skaven, they punish mistakes heavily. Your troops may be numerous and dirt cheap, but have little staying power and will rout at the first glance of danger. Add to this mechanics like the Under-Empire and Skaven Corruption, which need constant attention to make the best use out of them.
*'''Challenging Campaign Starting Settlements''': Your starting positions (aside from Ikit Claw) put you in opposition of factions that have a lot of tools to counter your strengths, particularly the Lizardmen or Dwarves (or both, in some cases).

==Universal traits==
*'''Verminous Valor''': The Leadership of Skaven Units depends stronger than other factions on how many Skaven are left, and will regenerate faster after breaking if the unit has more models left.
*'''Scurry away!''': Skaven units get a speed bonus when their leadership is low (including when routing). This is both good and bad; on one hand, they can quickly escape most pursuing infantry, recover then rejoin the fray in record times. On the other hand (particularly if near battlefield edges), they may full on abandon the battlefield long before their morale regenerates due to how quickly they move.
*'''Strength in Numbers''': When HP is above 50, skaven units are slower, have +6 leadership, and +8 melee defense. (Not universal across the roster, but close. Every infantry unit, melee and ranged unit has it. Entities like characters, Monsters/monstrous infantry, and artillery do not have it)
*'''The Menace below''': THE universal Skaven ability and one that is easily underestimated. It summons a unit of clanrats on any position on the map you wish. The rats will stay on the map for 60 seconds, after which, they die. The times you can use this ability depends on the Skaven corruption in the region the battle is fought in. Before the battle, you can increase the number of uses for a price of 3 food each. Never underestimate this ability, it's utility value is enourmous. That High Elven archer regiment that keeps eluding you? Throw rats on them. That scary looking Bretonnian Cavalry charge? Throw rats at them and negate their Charge bonus. That bloated corpse that could devastate your front line? Throw summoned rats in. The ability to summon sacrificial units ''for free'' is extremely powerful, be it to harrass skirmishers or missile units, bog down cavalry and elite infantry or just to have something expendable against suicide units. It's also an extremely potent counter to enemy artillery, such as Trebuchets, Hellstorm Rockets and the like. Since they have virtually no native combat skills of their own, your clanrats can actually cripple and kill many such artillery teams; a much safer and more efficient option for dealing with them. ''Update'': Has received a considerable nerf in the update for The Twisted and the Twilight. Its cast time is now a massive 5 seconds, allowing most competent players to fully avoid it, but since the ability doesn't have a hitmarker, it still retains a lot of usefulness. Honestly, the nerf probably just came to deal with the extreme amounts of cheese exploiters gained out it.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==
*'''[[Queek Head-Taker]] ([[Clan Mors]])''': Queek of Clan Mors starts in the Southlands in both campaigns and as well, has a pretty rough start. You are surrounded by factions that absolutely hate you and have a lot of tools to counter your strengths; it doesn't help that your economic base isn't that good (other than, let's say, Ikit Claw) and you get minor penalties if you don't control Karak Eight Peaks on Mortal Empires. That being said, if you are familiar with the game and aren't shy of taking a gambit (i.e. expanding as aggressively as possible early on), you will find Queek's Campaign very much to your liking. Important to note is that the penalties for not having Karak Eight Peaks are not nearly as crippling as they are for Skarsnik and Belegar Ironhammer.

:: Queek himself is a slightly improved Warlord with some unique boons. He excels as a melee fighter despite not having access to any mounts and stomps most enemy Lords and Heroes with relative ease. Add to this that he is the only Legendary Lord with a reliable escape ability and you can do a lot of nasty things to not-Skaven-Things. He buffs up Stormvermin by a good amount, as well as cutting their Upkeep in '''half''', so Clan Mors Armies tend to stack a lot of Stormvermin, which never is a bad idea. Starts out in the Vortex Campaign near Not Capetown and to the south of Karak Eight Peaks in Mortal Empires.

*'''[[Lord Skrolk]] ([[Clan Pestilens]])''': Skrolk leads Clan Pestilens in the overcrowded clusterfuck that is Lustria. Same problems as Queek in the early game, although the game is a bit more generous with early expansion opportunities. He basically has the same pitfalls as Queek, with the significant disadvantage that he starts the game pitted against Lizardmen, which are easily one of the faction that counter Skaven the hardest. Important to note is that Pestilens, as its name says, likes to play around with Plagues, and you actually benefit from catching it, giving you unit discounts, growth boosts and upkeep reduction.

:: Skrolk himself excels at Spellcasting and little else, but maxing out your Lore of Plague should be a top priority. He also gives nice boosts to all kinds of units that are associated with Clan Pestilens and starts with two Plague Monk Regiments, which will carry you through most of the early game.

*'''[[Tretch Craventail]] ([[Clan Rictus]])''': Tretch starts in fucking Naggarond of all places surrounded by most of the Dark Elves, Alith Anar right on top of him, with no prospective allies nearby except for maybe Grand Hierophant Khatep over the mountains and Cylostra Direfin to the south. Everyone hates your guts, and considering his special campaign rules (gain public order for breaking diplomatic treaties as well as a hefty melee attack bonus in battle) it's not hard to see why. You are a vanilla Skaven faction in every other regard, and Rictus is probably the hardest Skaven start in Vortex if not counting Queek. He does however start with the most top-tier units out of any other Skaven LL (Stormvermin, Death Runners and a DOOMWHEEL) which will easily let you expand quickly.

:: Tretch is in many regards an unremarkable Warlord, but he does gain his special rules from the old tabletop in the most faithful way possible - his iconic ''Stay Here, I'll Get Help'' rule returns as an active ability that will massively buff the Leadership of whatever units that are close by while granting Tretch himself stealth to save his own skin. Anon says Tretch is an unremarkable Warlord, and in multiplayer battles he is, but he's downright hilarious on campaign - his skills give his army +30% casualty replenishment, missile resistance and speed for Clanrats and Stormvermin, and Tretch himself gets regen and has a base SEVENTY melee defence. Although overshadowed by other Skaven LLs, Tretch can be just as infuriating to deal with as any other boss-leader, yes-yes. He also excels in campaign battles because of his ability to Vanguard Deployment his entire army, an ability only shared by [[Vlad von Carstein]].

:: In Immortal Empires, Tretch has become Skaven Sigvald. Between his tiny model, charge defense, sky high melee defense, and unique item that gives 40% damage resist if losing a combat, Tretch simply will not die. And he's also somehow picked up Kislev's by our blood ability, so he can't be leadership routed either. All this for a cost barely higher than a vanilla Skaven warlord. The other legendary lords may have flashier campaigns, but Skaven multiplayer belongs to Tretch.

*'''[[Ikit Claw]] ([[Clan Skryre]])(DLC)''': Comes with the "The Prophet and the Warlock" DLC, which, if you play Skaven, you should own anyway, so we could as well Ikit include as a Vanilla lord. Forget about the game telling his Campaign being hard, Ikit has by far the easiest start and can snowball out of control extremely quickly. Clan Skryres Campaign comes with features that are unique to them, first of all is the Forbidden Workshop, which lets you boost all Clan Skryre Units (as in Ratling Guns, Doomflayers, DOOMWHEELS etc.) with ridiculous buffs that make them even more powerful and gives you access to Doomsday Rockets, which are in essence, tactical nukes. Ikit Claw and Clan Skryre start the game in Skavenblight, squished in between Tilea and Estalia, and start the game at war with the latter. Interesting to note is that the AI rarely, if ever, attacks Skavenblight and the city itself has good protection from outside threats due its location in a toxic swamp alone and the ludicrous size of its garrison. Why this campaign is considered difficult by CA standards is beyond me. To top it all off, Clan Skryre also has exclusive access to the Doomsphere Under-Empire building which will wipe out any settlement above it in a truly glorious fashion.

:: Ikit himself packs the strengths of both Queek and Skrolk into a nice Skaven-sized-Package without possessing the weaknesses of either; his animations make it really hard to actually land a hit on him, he has a good amount of HP, high armour and a flamethrower. If that's not enough for you, he can also use the Skaven Lore of Ruin for even more damage, and if that is still not enough, you can stick him into his personal DOOMWHEEL (Although it's not recommended, a Doom-Flayer is the much better mount option). And even if that's not enough, he can unlock "Second-Wind Serum" skill, which activates every time he casts a spell and heals him for a flat number of points. Yeah, he is pretty busted and outright broken at times. You're still not convinced? He also happens to have some of the best voice acting and quotes of all characters in the game ("Hm-hm, forgot pesticides" "''Biggest'' Brain of all rats, yes-yes!")

*'''[[Deathmaster Snikch]] ([[Clan Eshin]])(DLC)''': Coming in with "The Shadow and the Blade" DLC, which brings the third great clan of the Skaven into the game along with three new regiments to round out both the Eshin and Skryre rosters. Snikch's campaign is intertwined with the other DLC Legendary Lord of his pack (Malus Darkblade of Hag Graef) and is centred on the race for control of the daemon Tz'arkan, so you won't be participating in the race for the Vortex. Instead, Snikch gains exclusive access to Shadowy Dealings, a set of unilateral campaign actions that involve sending out Snikch and his lords to murder, sabotage and infiltrate other factions in the classic Eshin way. What makes the Shadowy Dealings bonkers is their final, ultimate scheme - ''Plunge into Anarchy'', which '''permanently assassinates the leader of any faction (even a major one) and immediately sends all of their settlements into revolt.''' All of Lothern confederated? One click and they're all gone, just like that. Thankfully the scheme is on a 100-turn cooldown but it doesn't make it any less obscene.

:: Snikch is the legendary assassin we've all come to expect - stealthy, unbelievably fast and undeniably deadly up close. Stack those Weapon Strength buffs on him and watch as he one-shots almost every other Legendary Lord in the game, and for certain all of them if you give him the Sword of Khaine. In terms of army-wide buffs he does grant your slinger troops Armour-Piercing on their projectiles which is very good in the early to midgame against most of his neighbours. On the flipside you have increased purchase cost for every other unit that isn't a slave or Eshin, which you'll need to fix via the Clan Contracts system.

*'''[[Throt the Unclean]] ([[Clan Moulder]]) (DLC)''': The final Legendary Lord for the great clans of the Skaven has arrived, and oh boy is he a piece of work. Throt the Unclean has arrived with new units for the monstrous-minded player along with some interesting new mechanics. Like Snikch, Throt isn't going after the Vortex and instead thirsts for Queen Ariel of the Wood Elves, whom he believes that if he can nom her, his Black Hunger will be cured. To assist in this endeavour Throt gets access to the Flesh Laboratory which can give your infantry and monsters powerful individual stacking boosts at the risk of making them unstable. If a unit becomes too unstable they are liable to blow up Bloated Corpse-style in battle.

:: Throt is a different beast entirely for the Skaven lords and he packs a variety of monster-buffing abilities that let him crush through any opposition that gets in his way. To begin with he has Regeneration which makes him the tankiest Skaven lord so far, and that's not even including him being able to mount a Brood Horror, which will also make him the fastest Skaven on the battlefield. Befitting one of the greatest Packmasters of all time he can heal and buff monsters on the fly with his many abilities and can even summon a unit or two of Rat Ogres on the field to RIP AND TEAR as he pleases. His stats and his Creature-Killer also make him a nightmare to deal with for Monster- and Cavalry-heavy factions because the Weapon applies a Bonus vs. large buff on all allied units around him. If your enemy is Bretonnia or the High Elves, you pick Throt.

==Units==

===Lords===
*'''Warlord''': Your generic frontline melee Lord. Sufficiently armoured, but not very tanky, he struggles a lot against most enemy lords and even some heroes. What makes him a little worthwhile (but not much) is the Bonecrusher mount, effectively making him monstrous cavalry.

*'''[[Grey Seer]]''': Your caster Lord, in almost any case preferable to Warlords. Can choose between Lore of Plague and Lore of Ruin. Most notably is that, regardless of your Lore choice, Grey Seers have exclusive access to The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell that summons Stormvermin for additional crowd control and staying power as well having exclusive access to the Screaming Bell mount, which is just awesome in general. CA even added loud bell sounds whenever you cast a spell or use the special ability that comes with it, a short melee buff for all units on the entire map.

*'''Warlock Master (DLC)''': A pimped up Warlock Engineer, he provides less utility than the hero, but makes for it by being really good in combat and having much easier access to spellcasting (but let's face it, if you pick a Warlock Engineer for spellcasting, you're doing it wrong). Can be put on a Doomflayer or a DOOMWHEEL for extra Dakka. A very good hybrid lord, he can basically do anything. Don't expect him to last long against enemy Lords, though.

*'''Master Assassin (DLC)''': A step up from the generic Assassin hero who found some extra time to command an army of his own. A much preferable frontline melee Lord that can actually maybe kill the opposing lord and put the hurt on their heroes. Befitting a rat ninja he gets no mounts but somehow can lead an army of Clanrats without blowing his cover. Keep him around some Death Runners or Gutter Runners, he'll be able to keep up with them and apply his stealth tools to them.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Plague Priest]]''': Arguably one of the best heroes in the entire game. He is your primary sorcerer that has access to the Lore of, you guessed it, Plague. Plague Priests make pure ranged doomstacks of Ratling Guns, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplock Jezzails work. Formidable fighters when put on a Plague Furnace, their speciality is summoning a crapton of Clanrats (and Plague Monks) to your side and having access to the best AoE damage spell in the Skaven arsenal.

*'''Warlock Engineer''': You're starting to see a trend here, in that your Lords are mostly mediocre but your heroes pretty damn good. You don't get a Warlock Engineer for their spellcasting (though a warp lighting here and there doesn't hurt) but for their other yellow skilltree that transforms your already great ranged weapons into unholy monstrosities of death. Ballistics Calibration makes your artillery laser-accurate and it buffs the range and missile strengths of your weapons teams (i.e. units you would use anyway at any time once they are available). His bonuses [[awesome|'''do fucking stack''']] (seriously, a Warlock Engineer +2 Ratling Gunner Doomstack is some of the most hilariously overpowered shit in this game), but one alone is goddamn powerful and in a pinch, you can even comfortably use him to stall enemy cavalry. He is that good.

*'''Assassin''': Your go-to choice for getting rid of enemy agents on your turf or hanging around your armies doing things you'd rather like them not to be doing. On the battlefield they have an excellent array of stealth items and abilities that support getting in nice and close and wrecking generic lords as well as other heroes before vanishing without a trace. Excellent base melee attack means they will get their targets most of the time, try not to let him get surrounded because his defence is sucky. But just in case you need to get him out of there in a hurry, you've also got...

*'''Eshin Sorcerer (DLC)''': Comes with the Shadow and the Blade DLC alongside his big daddy Deathmaster Snikch. Said DLC introduces the Lore of Stealth exclusively to the Skaven, which in turn is wielded exclusively by the Eshin Sorcerer. The Lore of Stealth is designed to supplement the weak initial siegecraft of Clan Eshin as well as enhancing their playstyle, but in many ways is almost functionally similar to the Lore of Ruin that Grey Seers have. The standout spell is Veil of Shadows which is a non-damaging stationary vortex that can unblob dense crowds and either let your Assassins or other heroes escape, or let your rat-fu infantry easy access through a defended gate.

*'''[[Packmaster]] (DLC)''': Befitting the arrival of Clan Moulder to the game, Packmasters provide sorely-needed support to the various monstrous beasts of the Skaven. They provide ongoing buffs to monsters much like how Necrotects do to Tomb Kings constructs, but also have a couple of useful Wolf Rat summons that can easily give your army some cheap flanking on demand. They can also be taken on Brood Horror mounts, allowing them to zip around the battlefield at the fastest speed known to Skavenkind.

*'''[[Ghoritch]] (DLC)''': Ghoritch is an absurd beefcake of a legendary hero. For one his big armour stats and good morale combined with his raw weapon strength make him an infantry lawmower; even Phoenix Guard don't stand a chance against him in the long run. Second is that he, being a Northman transplanted into a Rat-Ogre, also shares a lot of Norscan traits, most importantly the one that increases a fat bonus for his combat stats the longer he is tied up melee, making efficient counterplay against him difficult, because he also happens to move at Mutant Rat-Ogre speed.

*'''Chieftain (FLC)''': Budget Warlord that does a surprisingly okay job at being the anchor for your frontline and fits rather well into melee heavy armies. If the lord is killed he'll take command of the army, giving a map-wide Leadership boost. It's not enough to counter the immediate penalty of losing the lord but after that wears off it'll be enough to counter the permanent morale loss. Has Access to the Bonecrusher mount.

===Infantry===
*'''[[Skavenslave]]s''': Cowardly, flimsy, expendable, cheap. Skavensklaves form the healthy base of any early game Skaven army. You send those guys in to die, not to do damage and to keep the enemy away from your weapons teams. Skavenslaves are by far the most efficient option to do just that. Can come with Spears if you want to give them more staying power against cavalry, but they are Skaven, do you really care if they die?

*'''[[Clanrat]]s''': Just a tier above Slaves, with the same attributes, albeit a bit more costly. Basic Clanrats without shields are not worth your time, you're better off just using Skavenslaves. Clanrats with shields will be your bread and butter for the early game, just don't get attached to any one unit of them.
**'''Clan Vulkn Tailslashers (RoR)''': Flaming attacks with fire resistance doesn't add much to the chaff role Clanrats are supposed to play but that do make a good companion unit with Warpfire Throwers since they'll be able to shrug off some of that friendly fire(heh) while pinning down the poor sods who are getting magical napalm'd.

*'''[[Stormvermin]]''': As "elite" as melee Skaven can be. In contrary to Clanrats and Slaves, they actually have staying power (due to being armoured) and good leadership for a rat. Take them with Halberds but as with the other frontline options, don't expect them to move mountains. Your strengths are elsewhere. Fairly big unit size for an elite unit which is a mixed bag. On the one hand big target, on the other hand you can use them to bog down enemy cavalry.
**'''Council Guard (RoR)''': Unbreakable halberd-wielding rats of doom that also have Guardian for protecting your Lords and Heroes on foot. Common auto-include for many of the Skaven's Legendary Lord armies.

*'''[[Eshin Triad]]s (DLC)''': Eshin ninja Stormvermin with Armor rending attacks. A very odd unit that comes with some downsides and all the same weaknesses Stormvermin has. If you don't play as Sniktch, forget about them. Their most mind-boggling weakness is their extremely low model count of just 75 models even on the highest settings. As if that wasn't enough, they are subpar at best even against most other factions early game infantry and lack the abilities and speed to make sneaky hit-and-run tactics you can do with Gutter Runners or Death Runners feasible. All of this wouldn't be as bad if they had 160 models, but alas, they don't.
**Eshin Triads aren't nearly as bad as anon makes them out to be, although they remain very niche unless you're playing Clan Eshin. While Death Runners will blend through infantry, Triads will rip open cavalry and monsters with ease and can keep up with other Eshin troops. If you try to use them like Stormvermin, they'll die very quickly. Let Triads run with your Eshin troops, to give a nasty surprise to any cavalry that tries to trample over your rats.
**'''Iksha's Triads (RoR)''': Improved Triads unit that gains the special ability ''Doppelgang'', which will spawn a fake copy unit of itself that deals no damage and can be moved around freely. Great for feinting and luring guarding units away from your intended target. Of dubious usefulness against the AI that sees through this deception.

*'''[[Death Runner]]s''': Whoo boy, those guys are really interesting. Probably the highest damage output a Skaven melee unit has, at the cost of a relatively low unit count and being overall very flimsy. That said, they can easily outclass even some elite units and are outright devastating against chaff. Their quick movement speed tends to push them towards a cavalry role, where they are best used.
**'''Visktrin's Death Squad (RoR)''': Faster, tougher Death Runners with their Duck & Weave passive ability, granting them some Missile Resist to boot too.

*'''[[Plague Monk]]s''': They trade armour for raw damage, but unlike Death Runners, can actually take a beating due to a high model count. Still, they cave easily against missile and skirmisher troops, so be prepared to have an answer to that. Their high cost both in recruitment as well as upkeep won't justify their use as mainline infantry, even though their morale holds up pretty well and they come with Frenzy.

*'''[[Plague Monk Censer Bearer]]s''': Same weaknesses as Plague Monks, but come with Great Weapons and magical attacks. Great for stalling enemy elite units, but need to be kept save from enemy missiles. Their attacks also inflict a leadership penalty on the enemy, which make them a good flanking unit to quickly cause routs.
**'''Brightscab's Plaguepack (RoR)''': Wish your clanrats wouldn't piss themselves when some skeletons crash onto your lines? Well this RoR is for you - the Plaguepack grants Immune to Psychology to all nearby units, stopping them from terror-routing just long enough to actually get some fighting (and most probably dying) done.

*'''[[Warp-Grinder]]s (DLC)''': More of an utility unit than something you would straight up use in a fight. Their bonuses against large and AP damage have some merit, but don't rely on them to do any meaningful damage in prolonged combat. They can bring down walls and gates with ease, something to keep in mind during sieges.

===Missile Troops===

*'''Skavenslave Slingers''': Best used as a suicide screen on your flanks where they can absorb charges, chase off ranged skirmishers, and huck rocks into the enemy line. Can do a surprising amount of damage if ignored for an extended period of time. And if your opponent orders a 500 gold unit to chase your 200 gold slingers for half the game, that's a win-win for you too, yes-yes.

*'''Night Runners''': Your fast and maneuverable skirmisher unit that also comes with Vanguard Deployment. Good at harassing the enemy backline and best used in that way. Come in Hybrid and Slingshot varieties.

*'''Warpfire Throwers''': Where the fun begins. Ridiculously high damage output, solidly armoured. Need positioning to work right, but will absolutely demolish anything that you point them at. They are surprisingly strong in melee against infantry if not deployed in a thin line because the back row can use their flamethrowers at point-blank, but not against cavalry as they'll pierce till the back row.
**'''The Doombringers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Takes their interesting ability to murderkill infantry in melee with point-blank warpfire to its logical extreme; the Doombringers gain Stormvermin-levels of melee attack and defence on top of being Unbreakable. Put them in the middle of your line in sufficient ranks and watch that unit of Chaos Chosen get destroyed in short order.

*'''Ratling Guns (DLC)''': You liked Fall of the Samurai? Then you are going to love these guys. They are machine guns in a late 16th century setting. Not terribly accurate, but with a high rate of fire, slowing enemies down, good range and a whopping 18 shots per volley. Did we mention that they have 36 models on large unit size settings? These should form your main gun line and are accessible pretty early on. Ikit Claw's Workshop gives them tremendous bonuses, the first one making it essentially impossible for them to run out of ammo.
**'''Teeth-Breakers (RoR)''': Concealment Bombs on Ratling Guns; for the discerning commander who likes to flank and enfilade for juicy kills.
**'''Death Dealers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Increased range and ammunition, matters less in Ikit's faction with their unlimited Ratling ammunition cheese but potentially good counterplay against Sisters of Avelorn when buffed with Warlock Engineers.

*'''Poisoned Wind Globadiers''': Essentially grenadiers. They lob their toxic gas over your units heads and are pretty good at doing it. They have a lot of positives over Warpfire-throwers. They have a slightly larger range, can fire indirectly and deal armour-piercing single target damage, Ikit Claw also gives their projectiles bonus vs. large. The most important difference between them and their upgraded brethren, the Death Globe Bombardiers is that they hit single models, reducing friendly fire casualties (as if you care about that) and generally being more accurate.

*'''Gutter Runners''': A straight upgrade from Night Runners, fulfill the same niche, but also come with poisoned shots. Set themselves apart by actually being decent melee combatants, sitting comfortably between Clanrats and Stormvermin in terms of strength while being not nearly as expensive as the latter.

*'''Death Globe Bombardiers''': Straight upgrade from Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but even more deadly. Their purple balls of death deal enough damage to kill any infantry model in a single hit, deal armour piercing AND bonus vs. large damage and all of that as AREA. OF. EFFECT. DAMAGE. Used correctly, they easily rank amongst the most deadly units in the game by far and destroy big blobs of infantry with ease. One salvo is usually enough to send any unit (apart from Chaos Chosen, perhaps) into a rout. Just make sure that you set up at a good angle, as Skaven as it is to kill your own troops alongside the enemy, Death Globe Bombardiers can deal a frankly disgusting amount of friendly fire damage. A use of The Menace Below or a squad or two of Skavenslaves are decent sacrificial options if you need some meat to slow down a priority target.

*'''Warplock Jezzails (DLC)''': SNIPER RATS. Long range, excellent accuracy, low rate of fire. Best used against single entity units or enemy lords and heroes, but easily have a place in most army builds. They also have Shieldbreaker attacks and unusually good armor, allowing them to tank missile fire considerably well. As of immortal empires, they gain piercing shots, making them better at shooting ranked infantry compared to WH2.
**'''Natty Buboe's Sharpshooters (RoR)''': Gains Stalk and Snipe, allowing them to pick off anything they please while being completely hidden. Very strong in both campaign and multiplayer, since they actively make counterplay against them difficult.
**'''Eye-Takers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Exchanges Shieldbreaker attacks for Blinding, reducing melee stats and accuracy. As if the Skaven needed more ways to cripple their enemies' ranged units...

*'''Poisoned Wind Mortars (DLC)''': Poisoned Wind Globadiers, but with range. In spite of this deceptively simple premise, these guys rank among the deadliest units in the game. Sporting a range that makes High Elven archers blush with jealousy (and actually is more comparable to artillery pieces) they send a big red flag to anyone who might think it is a good idea to just turtle up and sit the bombardment out. Well that and a horrible barrage of mustard gas of course. Static frontlines will crumble in short order when confronted with Poisoned Wind Mortars and while their generally low accuracy might suggest a weakness, it actually helps you to lock an area down where enemies can't through without suffering horrendous losses in the process. In drawn out battles, it might be advisable to keep automatic firing off for them, since they don't have that much ammo and your tarpits won't last that long if they also get shelled by your own troops, even if the Horned Rat might smile over such depraved tactics.
**'''Avalanche Mortars (RoR)''': [[Rape|POISON WIND CLUSTER MUNITIONS]]. '''The''' most overpowered ranged unit in the game, able to delete entire infantry regiments in a single salvo with ridiculous AoE damage that surpasses most regular artillery.

===Monsters & Chariots===

*'''Rat Ogres''': Strikingly similar to Greenskin and Chaos Trolls in a lot of respects; they move surprisingly quickly, pack a certain punch but can't take a beating and have awful leadership. They are useful for harassing archers and other units without armour and certainly have their place in the early game unit roster but become obsolete relatively quickly. Phase them out for Doomflayers as soon as you can. ...unless you're playing Clan Moulder, that is. With Throt as your boss, Rat Ogres become some of the most terrifying and cost efficient monstrous Infantry in the game and armour smashers and that's even before we count in mutations. You can hardly go wrong with Rat Ogres as your mainline as Throt.
**'''Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep (RoR)''': Gains Norsca berserker, making them a greater threat in sustained combat with the bonus of physical resistance and melee attack.

*'''Doom-Flayers (DLC)''': Your go-to choice for cavalry until the late game. Surprisingly durable and, unlike many other chariots, can withstand prolonged combat. They pack a whole bunch of that sweet AP goodness and are the bane of almost any Dwarfen unit, barring slayers.
**'''Dwarf-Thing Menace (RoR)''': As if the Doom-Flayer couldn't get anymore disgusting, this RoR variant adds Armor-Sundering to their attacks on top of their already-high Armor Piercing so you can rip up those high armor mobs with reckless abandon.
**'''Blackhole Flayers (Ikit's Workshop)''': Causes Fear and Brass Orb results in a Doom-Flayer squad that will in all probability rout everything it touches.

*'''DOOMWHEEL''': The DOOMWHEEL is pure Skaven awesomeness. While being a little on the frail side, it moves quickly and can absolutely terrorize the enemy backline if it gets the chance. Warlock Masters and Ikit Claw can also use a DOOMWHEEL as mounts, keep that in mind.
**'''Wheelz of Dooom (RoR)''': A DOOMWHEEL with extra shots per volley, allowing it to shred enemy infantry even more effectively.
**'''Warpfire's Wheel (Ikit's Workshop)''': Regeneration on a DOOMWHEEL ironically makes this spinning piece of Skaven awesome a better DISTRACTION CARNIFEX than the meaty mutant you're supposed to use.

*'''Hell Pit Abomination''': Your big fat DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. It takes a whopping buttload of damage despite having little to no armour and melee defence, but has decent regeneration and causes fear. One Abomination alone can easily tie up multiple enemy regiments in prolonged melee combat while your Ratling Guns and Globadiers do the actual work. And even if it dies, it explodes into more Skavenslaves that tie up the enemy. Have fun. What? You want more? Fine. Throt's inherent bonuses on everything that is a Clan Moulder creature make them surprisingly viable as an offensive unit, and if you start to throw mutations in, Abominations become walking engines of destruction. Vampiric regenration plus undeath and additional melee attack? Oh yes, please.
**'''The Thing Thing (RoR)''': A big upgrade to the Abomination's monster-killing capacity, with the temporary boost of the Fluid Injection, can put serious damage on most big things.

*'''Wolf Rats (DLC)''': The skaven get their very own Wolf Unit for giving archers hell. Much better in a lot of ways than their equivalents of the Chaotic and Vampiric variety and come in two Versions: Poison and Regular. Poison Wolf Rats are premium infantry munchers with a surprising amount of weapon strength and poison; they're usually your unit of choice when dealing with most backline units except armored ones - that's where the regular variant comes in. With magic ''and'' AP attacks at the expense of pure weapon damage, armour gives them little trouble, however you should keep in mind that their lower weapon strength might contribute to them being tied up in melee for way longer than they (and by extension, you) like. As hinted before, the Poisoned variant is much more desirable and actually much more effective at their jobs.

*'''Mutant Rat Ogre (DLC)''': Think of him like a mini-Ghoritch. He's absurdly quick on his feet, and dishes out the pain HARD. His animations frequently break any units formation that have him surrounded, and to top it all off, his health pool isn't too shabby either. If you're playing as Clan Moulder, Mutant Rat Ogres work the offensive counterpart to more defensive Rat Ogres; they take the beating and the Mutant charges in to dish out damage. He's also surprisingly viable as a counter to single entity heroes and lords, something Skaven have struggled with before The Twisted and the Twilight dropped.
**'''Morskittar's Hellion (RoR)''': Calls down Warp Lightning to bombard the enemy, letting it chew through enemy lines with greater ease, while also increasing the cooldowns of the abilities of the enemies it hits, making it effective against infantry and lords/heroes alike.

*'''Brood Horror (DLC)''': Moulder's high speed heavy hitter. Brood horrors are quick, cause terror and have a ton of AP damage. They are rather squishy and don't have great morale, so they should have a Master Moulder on hand for support, but used effectively they can be a rather effective Lord-buster. Use them like they're a single-entity shock cavalry: charge in, stick around for about 15 seconds tearing people's heads off, then move on before they can muster any real response.

===Artillery===

*'''Plagueclaw Catapults''': The more inaccurate, but more potentially damaging artillery piece. It lobs packs of toxic sludge over great distances. The one great strength that both Skaven artillery pieces have over enemy artillery is that their crews are surprisingly large, giving them a bit more staying power against direct charges by cavalry and melee infantry. Plagueclaws are best used against the more infantry-centric factions, as their greater AoE capabilities help a lot with thinning out hordes and enemy archers. Their projectiles also cause an extra leadership penalty to units they hit on top of the normal penalty for being damaged by artillery, causing many enemies to flee before they even get close.

*'''Warp Lightning Cannon''': Basically a great cannon with a lot more ZZZAP and much less of a hassle to micromanage. It fires directly, but isn't bound to a high position to do meaningful damage and believe me, it will do damage. Three regiments of these things will obliterate all but the biggest of monsters in short succession and still retain a lot of firepower against hordes, especially when the enemy is all clumped up in one space.
**'''Ikit's Zzzzap-Zzzzap!''': Though ''Zzzzap!'' is not a particularly useful debuff unless you really hate all those mages on monstrous mounts, you'll almost certainly want this Warp Lightning Cannon variant for its absurdly high missile damage.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies/General Battle Strategies===

Skaven were for a time one of the most difficult factions to play in MP before their first and then third DLC, but with the full suite of their Weapon Teams and monsters now available they're a force to be reckoned with and have many answers to many of the other factions. While you will never win a stand-up infantry fight against anyone that's not what wins you games - it's your ability to turn every battlefield into a twisted version of Omaha Beach, and you're the rats manning the machine guns.

*'''Beastmen''': Unusually, the Beastmen have similar leadership problems as you do but they make up for it by having a lot scarier monsters than you do, as well as having the ability to summon them into the middle of your gunline. Fortunately for you that means you have the range and damage to easily break their problem units before they can reach you, and you will NEED to fuck their leadership up before your lines clash because again, their base infantry will fuck your up handily. They also have some very annoying skirmish units that will require some attention but luckily you have both similar and superior units to counter that.

*'''Bretonnia''': Bretonnia are fucking fast with their many cavalry options and even their piss infantry will beat your frontline with sufficient time. They will almost certainly flank you hard so it's important to stock up on Skavenslave Spears and wolfrats to tarpit those precious Knights while you cut them up with your artillery and Ratling Guns. The two-punch combo of Ratling Guns and Warplock Jezzails works magnificently here, the Jezzails able to thin down their numbers before the charge and the Ratling Guns will mow them down when they get in range. Throw some Warp Lightning Cannons in for extra shredded cheese. In the case of that odd infantry build with Foot Squires and Pilgrims, bring your best tarpits (Clanrats with Shields will do just fine) and go to town on them with Globadiers, Warpfire Throwers, and Poison Wind Mortars.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Chaos Daemons''': 'Hey what if we had more mobile irondrakes' 'or could bring khorne rapeletters with slaanesh as backup' Chaos daemons will be the bane of your existence. the only thing you can count on is that he WON'T bring any nurgle units

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Ungodly amounts of armor, infantry that walk right over yours like they're made of nothing, and monsters that deal ridiculous damage. Sounds like a massive pain, right? Not! Remember that you are the Skaven - to fight at range is the most desirable way of fighting and you have some of the best projectile weapons in the game, and on top of that they have some of the best Armour-Piercing capability in the game which means those slow-ass metal hunks they call Chosen will eat warpstone-lead and poison gas like it's the Battle of the Somme redux. You can kite really well against WoC and believe me you want to be kiting lots against Chaos.

*'''Dark Elves''': The Dark Elves represent a faster, killier version of the High Elves and for the Skaven, that's worse news. Lucky for you their durability is much less which means that even your stompy rats like Rat Ogres and Abominations can get some solid work done against their infantry setups. Just watch out for their Shades with Great Weapons and Darkshards who like most archer infantry will rip up your rats if they're even slightly out of position, and the big bad monsters like War Hydras that will inevitably make a beeline for the centre of your line. Blow holes in them with Warp Lightning Cannons as usual.

*'''Dwarfs''': Your arch-nemesis in the mountains has just as good artillery as you do and they can trade really well with your foot ranged because they have better armor and leadership than you do. Don't let them chew up your heavy hitters for too long! Your upside is that a hell of a lot of your roster has great AP and will easily mulch through their lines with proper tarpitting. Flank them hard, abuse your ridiculous magic and don't be afraid to send the occasional Doomflayer or Rat Ogre mob in to put more pressure on their Longbeards. Be wary of Miners with blasting charges and Firedrakes, they can easily interrupt your flank play or the advance of your tarpits with their ungodly amounts of fire damage.

*'''Empire''': The Empire can field a lot of different builds against you so you can never know what exactly they'll throw at you, but their artillery like Hellstorm Rocket Batteries and Mortars will mess up your day if they get the chance to fire. Spread your troops out, bring in some infiltrators or with Vanguard Deployment or Rat Wolves and keep an eye on their fast movers, shut them down with Ratling Guns if they come too close. You can very easily back-flank the Empire with proper micro, and a good Assassin or two with Runner support in the rear can really fuck up their game plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Cathay will outrange you and has enough chaff and armor to stand against most of what you can put out. Dwarf's greatest weakness against you was the lack of mobility but cathay's turtling AND mobility AND magic will be really tough to beat. Also if your opponent brings 'yin' lore of magic and starts sending your artillery shots right back at you you're in deep shit-shit.

*'''Greenskins''': While orcs and monsters may seem like the scariest threats, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for goblins. You have the firepower to turn a mob of orcs into swiss cheese before they can haul their asses into melee, but wolf and spider riders can hit you unexpectedly fast and hard. You should also remember that greenskins can fill there WAAAGH! meter from any melee combat, so throwing skavenslaves at them can actually benefit them in the long run. Not that you should avoid throwing chaff at the enemy entirely, but its better to withdraw from combat if at all possible.

*'''High Elves''': Not an impossible matchup, but it largely depends on what the Elves field in their army. Your big advantage here are your numbers and the liberty of being able to just choose targets. Therefore, fight as any proper Skaven should do: Dirty! Use Howling Warpgale against those dragons, pin the Elven Cavalry down with Ratling Guns and decimate their Spearmen with Globadiers or Mortars. If you know how to make use of Tarpits, this will be going well.

*'''Kislev''': Ratling guns,Ratling guns,Ratling guns. playing the missile game against kislev's low-armor and relatively poor numbers units is your greatest strength, kislev's unbreakable 'by your blood' only comes into account when they're in melee making shredding them from range even more enticing

*'''Khorne''': Khorne powers up by killing your infantry. you have a lot of infantry. you can't outrun the bloodletters with the majority of your units so at best bring gutter runners and pray he didn't bring too many furies. bring what weapons teams you can and try and have a frontline of heroes or rat ogres

*'''Lizardmen''': Lizardmen are the bane of your existence. They are easily able to bring everything to the table you don't like: Scary monsters, flying units, ''lots'' of powerful AoE magic, and decent cavalry. Saurus Warriors easily chomp through your Slaves and Stormvermin and their abundance of giant fuck-off dinosaurs makes sure that your already subpar frontline has a hard time. A match against Lizardmen often means rapid redeployment and singling out key targets. If the opponent is bringing Skink Priests or a Slann, make sure that your front line is sufficiently spaced out to minimize their vortex spells. One key advantage you have over Lizardmen is your great arsenal of ranged firepower; make use of your range and your numbers to keep the big things busy. Warplock Jezzails are invaluable, as well as Warp Lightning Cannons.

*'''Norsca''': Similar ordeal to Lizardmen, however their cavalry option mostly either suck or are vulnerable to tarpitting. Their monsters are scary but mostly unarmoured and their infantry will thrash yours with very little trouble. Don't even think about bringing Moulder beasts to this matchup, Norsca has no shortage of Anti-Large Options and their monsters are much more powerful than yours. However, at long range, you have a strong advantage. Kite their infantry, keep their monsters busy and snipe them with Jezzails or Warp Lighting Cannons. Ratlings have no trouble tearing through Marauder hordes. The best way to win this matchup is to keep the scary things away from your gunline.

*'''Nurgle''': If you can't win this just uninstall. Nurgle has great issues with manuvering giving loads of time for your ranged arsenal to rip him apart, howling warpgale can completely stonewall his flying units giving easy targets for ratling guns. Demolish nurgle's flying units and since every unit in your roster is faster than any non-flying unit in Nurgle's arsenal you can just run around the battlefield re-setting up your units and shredding his infantry. a very easy matchup.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': You've got a lot of options here. ogre's high mass monstrous infantry can only do so much if you bring enough skavenslaves. ratling guns and jezzails will shred through the low-armor ogres. your biggest threat is gorgers. swamp the ogres with chaff and rip them apart. i wouldn't reccomend the kiting game with gutter runners as sabretusks and gorgers WILL outrun and eat them.

*'''Slaanesh''': Oh boy, this is not great for you. Slaanesh's monsters, chariots, and cavalry all clock in at around 100 speed, including their lords. Their infantry is a about half that, close to Deathrunner speed. They will close the distance with you blisteringly fast. Once up close they are going to have a lot of leadership debuffs and armor piercing. Your infantry won't hold against them and the armor on your weapon teams means both jack and shit. If you bring any kind of ranged units you had better protect them very well. Assume your back line is going to get swamped. This might be a good battle to bring in the Moulder monsters. Slaanesh's AP means nothing to their lack of armor and with Throt and a Packmaster around you can keep their leadership a bit more stable. Some Eshin skirmishers might be helpful too but only as a distraction -- Slaanesh will easily run them down.

*'''Skaven''': Skaven excel at disruption and that also applies to other skaven. Bringing artillery and weapon teams is very risky, they're not going to accomplish much if the crews are getting pelted to death by gutter runner slingers or blended by doomflayers. Consider leaving the big guns at home and beefing up your infantry/monster game instead.

*'''Tomb Kings''': Watch out, Tomb Kings can move unexpectedly fast with a lot of chariots and monsters, and will hit your front lines a lot faster than you would like. The monsters are the biggest threat, and you can focus them down pretty quickly, but any TK player with half a brain will bring a Necrotech to patch up any injuries their constructs may have, so make sure you finish each monster before moving on to the next. And keep an eye out for their catapults, they cause even more moral damage than normal artillery and can quickly shatter the enemy rats.

*'''Tzeentch''': Flamers,Flamers,Flamers bring jezzails and take them off the field as fast as possbile, bring strong magic to blast through barriers and resistances and bring rat ogres and other mobile units, making sure tzeench never has the option to put up his barriers after the first engagement is critical.

*'''Vampire Coast''': Free fodder for your Ratlings. No really. You have the best ranged arsenal in the game at your disposal, it has better range than anything on foot the Vampire Coast fields and the Vampirates are also very slow. While many of their units cause fear and terror, if any unit reaches your frontline, you're playing Skaven very, very wrong. Get Ratling Guns, some Warplock Jezzails against the big stuff. Clanrats should do well enough against their frontline barring Depth Guard. Keep an eye out for Mornguls; they have stalk, vanguard deployment, and move surprisingly fast for creatures with no legs. And if they do manage to hit your lines they have enough regeneration and anti-infantry damage to rip straight through your chaff and devour the big guns you were protecting.

*'''Vampire Counts''': The mobility of the Counts makes large gunlines and artillery a dangerous proposition, since Vargheists and Terrorgheists care very little about what may be going on on the ground and you can cast Howling Warpgale only so often. Luckily for you, the Twisted and Twilight happened and brought with it a scary arsenal of mutated horrors that match those of the Vampires. This is one of the few matchups where Stormvermin and Plague Monks can truly shine, as the Vampires Skeleton Hordes and Zombies stand no chance against them and Halberds have little trouble to come out on top against Black Knights, Blood Knights, and the like. Stormvermins better morale also helps out against the fear every unit of the Counts cause. The occasional Chieftain and/or Mutant Rat Ogre helps a lot of with the Vampire Lords themselves, especially when the Chieftain sits on a Bonecrusher. You might also want to bring a Warlock Master for magic damage against Mortis Engines and/or Hexwraiths.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are... complicated for you to deal with. In a straight ranged duel, you have the advantage; though they have very powerful and flexible archers, they lack any and all artillery to contest yours. Warplightning Cannons are great for sniping the giant, slow-moving Treemen and the Plagueclaw Catapults will chunk any of their infantry quite quickly. A combination of Ratling Gunners and Warplock Jezzails will deal terrible damage to a significant majority of their infantry as they get in range, though once they get ''too'' close you will start to have problems. As a glass-cannon faction, Wood Elves melee infantry can butcher vast swathes of your infantry at record speeds and are fast enough that kiting them will prove difficult even in ideal terrain. Death Runners and wolfrats are your best melee infantry unit against the unarmored elves, though they'll evaporate against War Dancers and Wildwood Rangers. Units like your Rat Ogres, Hellpit Abominations and Doom-Flayer will kill virtually any elf-thing you point them at, but the abundance of spear units in their front line will still deal not insignificant damage to them in the process. Beware their eagles and cavalry; they're extremely fast and can effortlessly flank your units to get at your vulnerable ranged back line. Keep a few units of Stormvermin in reserve to block these charges.

==Campaign Strategies==

===General Advice===

*'''Keep an eye on your food level:''' If you're lacking food, raid your neighbours and fight as many battles as you can... without losing. Don't overuse Menace Below or taking a settlement at a higher level. The latter in particular eats a LOT of food, and the debuffs from being at low food levels (and the lack of buffs from being at high levels) may well cancel out the benefits of starting a settlement at a higher level, plus you may not even have the money to fill all the building slots you unlocked early. Skaven generally grow very fast anyway.

*'''Secure nonaggression pacts where you can:''' Skaven have an incredibly weak early game (ME Skryre arguably excepted), with Eshin especially lacking effective access to a lot of powerful units until you can get your clan reputations up. If you have potential opponents on multiple fronts, play the rat game: secure a nonaggression pact with one, take over the other, then stab the first in the back later. Otherwise, YOU may be the one getting stabbed in the back while you're busy cleaning up one of them.

*'''Play dirty:''' Abuse ambushes (Ancient Cunning in the blue skill tree is amazing and you should get it for every lord), manipulate other factions with diplomatic treaties that you break when it's convenient for you, troll enemy armies that can't use the Underway by tunneling across a mountain range... in general, don't play fair, or you're not a real rat. Everyone hates you anyway, so it's only fair you hate them right back.

===Campaign Specific Advice===

===Mors===

*'''Befriend Numas:''' This Tomb King faction is directly to the west of your starting location in ME, and they usually won't get wiped out for quite some time to come - so becoming friends with them means you will have one less flank to worry about for a while at least. Plus, as Tomb King opinion of you ''increases'' instead of decreasing as your empire level goes up, they'll be all too happy to trade and help out your weak early economy once you start taking a few settlements. An alliance might not be the best idea though, as Daddy Settra may shoot you dirty looks over it (assuming he doesn't get wiped early).

*'''Secure the mountain range:''' Push south afterwards and take the mountains from the greenskins and dawi holding it. With Thorek having been added recently, this became a bit harder, but also more rewarding, as his defeat trait gives the defeating lord more AP damage for '''his entire army''', which makes subsequent battles with the stunties MUCH easier.

*'''Clanrats are your friend:''' Don't underestimate these little buggers. Unless you're playing on higher difficulties, filling an entire army with Clanrats with 2-3 Chieftains backing them up is a surprisingly viable tactic, and Queek can buff them quite heavily - and with your Clanstone, you get lots of extra AP damage to get through dawi armour. Make sure to take the red lord skill that buffs them if you go for this, as well as rushing the upgrades in the top left of the tech tree.

* '''Immortal empires''' In immortal empires you start 1 region away from skarbrand. not province, REGION. prepare for assrape. more seriously rush walls as quick as you can and expand towards lybaras and kroq-gar as you don't have ANY options to counter khorne's basic bloodletters until tier 3 and 4.

===Pestilens===

*'''Don't forget about plagues:''' With other rat factions, plagues are more of an unfunny gimmick as they can backfire on you quite heavily, but this is not a worry with Pestilens as they are even ''buffed'' by catching plagues. And this is almost a necessity against the lizards you fight in early game, as it will be very difficult to grind through Saurus otherwise until you get weapon teams. Plan out your offensives alongside plagues if you can.
*'''Take it slow:''' You are surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Itza is ready to come knocking at any moment, Teclis may decide he needs some rat slippers, and that is just the tip of it. Be ready to be attacked by anything, and everyone at any point.
*'''Undercites are extra useful'''* Besides the general uses, Clan Pestilens as a unique undercity building that spreads an endless plague so as long as the undercity remains undiscovered. This can allow you to easily screw over entire provinces and buff your own. Using this on the city of Itza can make life much easier.

===Skryre===

*'''Just do it:''' In Mortal Empires at least, this is one of the easiest starts in the game. Skavenblight has a capital-tier garrison on its own, on top of costing a lot of movement to reach and causing attrition to most of your enemies. Just expand in whatever direction you please, honestly - going west and north into Estalia and then Bretonnia is the most common move, but you may need to deal with Khazrak on the way. Going east and taking Tilea may also be worth it as it's a very profitable province - just be wary as you may need to fight Belegar and the asrai if you do.
*'''Unite with important clans:''' Ikit's starting position, in Mortal Empires at least, is very convenient in the sense that it shouldn't take too long to reach other major clans to establish alliances(and confederations later). This can be achieved rather easily by hiring assassins and sending them out to whichever clan you need. Be warned tho, due to starting positions on the map, clan Pestilence and Riktus end up being destroyed around 15-20 rounds into the game. Sending the warlock engineer, that you get at the start, to seek out one of those clans (Preferably Pestilence) to establish relations early and bribing them into confederation can serve you well in the long run. Clan Moulder is a bit on the opposite, in terms of confederation timing. Due to some unfixed bug, if you confederate their faction '''before''' Throt reaches rank 5 and completes his "Whip of Domination" quest, completing this quest as only other faction will result in Ghoritch spawing as a member of the clan you've already confederated, without the ability to take him in.
*'''The more engineers the better:''' bonuses provided to your weapon squads by warlock engineers '''stack'''! Don't hesitate to hire several for an army, if you aim on using more than a few weapon teams. One of the best formations for Ikit due to his discounts is 1/4 engineers, 2/4 weapon teams and 1/4 meat shield. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7WnhDvGh-Y While one can go as far as filling their entire squad with engineers], you're very likely to end up in a battle you simply can't win.

===Rictus===

*'''Everyone hates you:''' To an even greater degree than other rat campaigns. In addition, your starting settlement is nowhere near as defensible, and you have Malekith/Hellebron in the north as well as Alith Anar and the Sisters of Twilight expanding from the south. The rule about nonaggression pacts applies double here - secure whatever flank you can, then expand in whatever direction you're left with. Yes, you get a Public Order boost for breaking treaties, but this is a stupid gimmick that does nothing but bait you into unfavourable situations.

===Eshin===

*'''Skirmish tactics out the ass:''' Both in Total Warhammer II and III, you start out surrounded by factions (High elves and Dark elves in TW2) (Dark Elves, Cathay and Ogres in TW3) that will absolutely trounce you in melee. However, because Clan Eshin is able to construct its military building at Tier 1 (Every other skaven faction need at least Tier 2 settlement to construct it), you're pretty much encouraged to hire Night Runners and Gutter Runners. The only thing they have that can catch your infantry is cavalry or monsters - if that happens, just let them eat whatever regiment they focus on while you keep skirmishing with the others. To avoid this happening, hire Eshin Triads that are available from "Den of Secrets" building (Tier 3). Remember, all rats are expendable.

*'''Do clan missions whenever they are available:''' Getting your reputations up is absolutely critical, as not only does this make it much easier to confederate, but it also gives you powerful campaign map bonuses (like each of your armies producing food for maxing Pestilens reputation), but they are ''always'' a net reputation gain unless the reputation you'd gain is maxed out already. You can recruit 1-2 Master Assassin lords and then disband them right after recruitment - they can be used to perform clan missions, but they don't need to be on the map to do so, and while they are in the pool and not on the map, they don't even cost you anything.

===Moulder===

*'''Packamsters are essential:''' Having a packmaster in an army that has moulder units is a good addition, but for a factions that specializes in them, packmaster is a must have. While, by themselves, they are a comparatively weak unit with bonuses against anti-large, the skills they can accumulate with experience make them worth while. Right out of the gate, their passive perk "Running with the Pack" provides small regeneration up for to 3 moulder units, that are currently fighting. Around 5 levels in, they can unlock “Tide of Death” and “Tide of Pox” skills, which gives them an ability to summon a pack of wolf rats with AP and a pack of poison wolf rats once per battle. Both skills can be leveled up again to gain another stack for each. Somewhere around level 13, they can unlock skills to decrease upkeep and increase replenishment rate for moulder units. At level 16 they get a brood horror mount, which makes them a great combatant, due to passive regeneration, speed and health pool provided by said mount. Last, but not least, with enough points invested in their combat skill tree, they can unlock "Shock Collar" ability which gives a +24 Melee attack and a +16 Leadership boost as well as "Immune to psychology" perk for a limited time to any moulder unit including themselves (provided they have a brood horror mount)

*'''Purchase mutagen upgrades early:''' There are several mutagen upgrades in the moulder lab, that give you several random mutations of the specific tier. A nice upgrade indeed, but to make use of it, one must have those preferred mutations unlocked by applying them to any squad/monster at least once. Don't hesitate to mutate your favorite monsters in early game, since mutagen accumulates rather quickly with frequent battles. In addition to that, a special upgrade can be purchased, that applies mutations to any skavenslaves squad purchased with a drawback of being unable to recycle them if they come out faulty.

*'''Don't hoard mutagen:''' Unlike warp fuel from Ikit campaign, mutagen is generated at a somewhat stable rate. However, one cannot stock up more than a 100 points of it. Otherwise, anything beyond that cap will start deteriorate, if left unused. While the storage capacity can be doubled with an upgrade, it won't be available until somewhere mid game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen

2023-06-20T19:26:55Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Kroq-Gar */

{{Topquote|Sar Sotek!|Game battle chant for Lizardmen}}
This is the tactics page for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Lizardmen.

==Why play Lizardmen==
*You love the parts of Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs eat everyone.
*They're [[awesome|aztec dinosaurs riding dinosaurs]] into battle. Some of those dinosaurs also have magical lasers strapped to them.
*You want to be a master of the arcane, but you don't want to wear [[High Elves|foppish headgear]] or have a racial lifespan only in the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|double digits]].
*You'll have a nearly fearless army that's more likely to fight to the death before they turn tail and run.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMwpC70di2w Do you want to see what one of these does to your enemies?]

===Pros===
*'''A Multitude of Monsters''' - The Lizardmen have the largest diversity of massive monsters in the game at their disposal. Between the various Bastilidons, Stegadons and Carnosaurs you can field, you won't be wanting for big beasties.
*'''Intimidating Presence''' - Unsurprisingly, the average man will struggle to keep calm and collected when facing down a stampede of hungry carnivorous dinosaurs many times his size. Virtually every monster and cavalry unit in this army inspires fear and terror in the mortal hearts of men; a few well timed Carnosaur charges can break and rout forces not outright immune to psychology. Conversely, this also renders your monsters immune to fear/terror effects as well.
*'''Resilient Frontline''' - Saurus Warriors, even unshielded, are among the most durable baseline infantry units in the game. Though their damage output is rather low, their good armor and leadership will ensure they'll hold the line. Most non-AP grindfests will tend to work out in your favor on virtue of that alone. Of course this isn't even mentioning how tanky higher tier units like the Temple Guard or Kroxigors are.
*'''Mastery of Magic''' - With the notable exception of High Elves, Lizardmen have reliable access to more schools of magic than any other race. Slann and the mighty Lord Kroak offer not only some of the most reliable casting in the game, but have consistent access to the otherwise elusive Greater Arcane Conduit skill. Your skink priests are no push overs in magical matters either and are very cost effective options for when slann [[heresy|just aren't your thing]].
*'''Flexible Artillery''' - Where most other factions have to slowly wheel siege engines into place and are vulnerable to attacks in melee, Lizardmen give no fucks. Due to their Solar Engines and Ballistae being strapped on the backs of mighty Bastilidons/Stegadons, they can easily reposition themselves and hold their own in melee combat. Additionally, were the actual artillery models of other races can actually be destroyed, the Ballistae and Solar Engines will remain fully intact so long as the creature bearing it remains standing.
*'''Cavalcade of Cavalry''' - Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Terradons and Ripperdactyls, oh my! Though not as fast or as effective as some other faction's cavalry, you have a very diverse selection of fast-moving dinosaurs that can outflank enemies and flexibly adapt to the variety of terrain you may find yourself in. Just don't expect your cav to top any particular charts when compared against any faction that specializes in them.
*'''Predatory Senses''' - As your army consists heavily of predatory animals that excel at sniffing out prey, your enemies will be hard pressed to remain hidden from them. Enemies that rely on stealthy abilities like Stalk are revealed to you far more quickly than others, giving you far more time to react to (in battle) ambushes than other factions.
*'''Poison Aplenty''' - Many of the weapons wielded by your Skinks are poisonous, inhibiting the mobility/combat performance of enemies afflicted by their noxious attacks. Despite poison no longer dealing constant damage like on the tabletop, their debuffs are still useful for weakening the enemy for your frontline troops. Thank to the recent update that removes any form of poison debuffs that can apply to the player units through friendly fire, Skink's poison darts are even better.
*'''DLC Aplenty''' - You are tied with the Skaven for the honor of having the most DLC. You also have two FLC lords on top of all this, so between a grand total of 7 legendary lords and three DLC lord packs, you are the most supported main game faction in Total War: Warhammer II.
*'''Blessings of the Old Ones''' - Many of your units have "Blessed" variants available in casual multiplayer matches or the campaign. Blessed units are effectively pseudo-Regiments of Renown and every single one is given a buffed health pool and, where applicable, an increased model count per unit. Additionally, many of these blessed units receive additional passive abilities or upgraded stats to further their combat potential. What's better is, unlike Regiments of Renown, you can technically have as many blessed units as you want. The only downside (admittedly a big one) is that in order to acquire blessed units in the campaign, you must complete randomly generated quests that issue a set quantity of a random blessed unit upon completion. If you want an army of blessed Carnosaurs, you're going to have to earn it. This is a complete non-issue in causal multiplayer matches, where blessed units are freely available for a very minor upcharge in cost compared to regular variants. Blessed units are unavailable in competitive games.

===Cons===
*'''Slow''' - A majority of the Lizardmen list, namely Saurus infantry, take their sweet time to cross the field. Though there are exceptions to this, such as the various cavalry and Skink units available to you, this particular weakness is exacerbated by...
*'''Vulnerable to Range''' - ...their dearth of viable missile units. The only ranged infantry available to you are Skinks; particularly squishy infantry that, though nimble, have pitiful range and DPS against anything shielded and/or armored. Your more potent offensive options, namely Salamanders or Stegadons/Bastilodons, cannot fire while moving and are rather easy to tie down in melee. Defensively, though your Saurus are quite tanky and often come with shields, they are very vulnerable to being kited by ranged cavalry/infantry due to their rather slow movement speed. Additionally, all your units save for Gor-Rok are stuck with Bronze Shields (35% block chance), meaning that even when they're in a position to use them, you'll still be soaking a significant portion of the incoming shots all the same. The same can also be said about most of your monsters, with some minor exceptions.
*'''Limited Generic Character Usefulness''': This is a big one. Other than your magic characters (i.e. Slann and Skink Oracles which are pretty much good because they have magic), your other generic lords/heroes just don't stack up. When you compare them to the other factions' characters, they fall short in their respective roles, whether that's melee prowess, support utility, campaign map usefulness, you name it. Best to rely on your monstrous units and magic to fulfill their roles!
*'''Sub-par Air-Force''' - Though you have flyers, a luxury many other factions lack, they're among the weakest/slowest of them. Terradons, Ripperdactyls, and Coatls aren't ''bad'', per se, but they will lose if faced with the flying cavalry/monsters in their weight class from the likes of Bretonnia or High/Wood Elves.
*'''Expensive Roster''' - As you can imagine, breeding and training massive dinosaurs and mounting arcane instruments of war onto them isn't cheap. All of your high tier units can get crazy expensive both in initial cost and upkeep. Even the bog standard Saurus Warriors come at a premium compared to some other factions options, though this is only particularly notable in competitive multiplayer.
*'''Rampage''' - This was a much bigger problem in Game 2, where pretty much everything except for Skinks and Slaan would lose control and mindlessly charge the closest thing they could see. Game 3 has more or less restricted this issue to your feral monsters, letting your infantry keep their cool and do their jobs. That said, it's still a problem if your Carnosaur suddenly bolts into that nearby unit of halberds while your lords/heroes are otherwise occupied.
*'''Bland Campaign''' - Aside Oxyotl and ''possibly'' Tehenhauin, the Lizardmen have the most boring campaign mechanics of any of the game II races (including some of the game I ones). Their unique mechanic, the Geomantic Web, is a very passive and basic provincial buff that takes a lot of resources and time to properly build up to a level you'll actually notice the effects of and offer no benefit to provinces you don't ''completely'' control. Yes, losing that one minor settlement causes the provincial capital to shut off its Geomantic Pylon until you reclaim it. Additionally, without mod support, Lizardmen are among the most stubborn and oppositional to confederation. Fortunately, though it isn't a top priority for them, CA is aware that Lizardmen need their campaign mechanics updated to bring them up to modern standards. Hopefully that update comes soon.
*'''DLC Locked Content''' - Though a con for virtually every other faction in the game, this is a particularly notable one for Lizardmen. Many, if not most of the Lizardmen's better units are locked behind DLC lord packs. You'll need the Prophet and the Warlock for all units marked with DLC 1, the Hunter and the Beast for everything marked with DLC 2 and the Silence and the Fury for everything marked DLC 3.

==Universal Traits==
There are a couple of perks and abilities shared across a significant portion of the lizardmen unit roster, which will be mentioned here.
*'''Primal Instincts''' - A perk found on a majority of the Lizardmen roster (exempting Lords/Heroes and Skinks), primal instincts will cause a unit with this ability to rampage out of control should their health drop to 20% or less. This can be a bit of a mixed blessing, as the rampaging unit will receive a +15% Charge Bonus and a +8 Melee Attack bonus and continue to fight nearby opponents in situations that any other unit would turn tail and rout. The bad news is that your opponent has more control over the rampaging unit than you do; rampaging units will single-mindedly charge at the nearest enemy unit, which your opponent can take to his advantage by using faster infantry/cavalry to kite the rampaging unit while his ranged infantry/artillery finishes it off. Of course, this is also factoring in that by the time these bonuses kick in, your Saurus unit or Carnosaur is typically on its last legs and won't last much longer anyways. Should the rampage end ''before'' the unit dies, they'll usually begin to rout from the field and will often be too far out of position for you to properly recover them.
::'''Warhammer III''' buffs Primal Instincts for Saurus Units; no longer causing rampage (thank god) while triggering much sooner (Triggering at 50% health as opposed to TWWII's 20%). When active, it gives Saurus units a +15% Charge Bonus, +10 Melee Attack and +5% Physical Resist buffs that remain active indefinitely so long as the Primal Instinct threshold has been crossed. This applies even to Saurus cavalry and since you can actually ''control'' them when Primal Instincts pops now, you can be far more surgical when taking advantage of these buffs.

*'''Cold Blooded''' - A targetable ability found on most Lizardmen Lords and Heroes, Cold Blooded helps to counter the innate weakness in the Lizardmen faction; their tendency to rampage. When used, Cold Blooded will snap a single unit out of a rampage (if they are currently doing so) and will temporarily buff their leadership. This ability can be used pre/post rampage as well, as the leadership buff can potentially prevent a rampage from occurring or can help prevent a tattered unit from routing once their rampage expires. As this ability has a somewhat lengthy cooldown an is only found on Lords/Heroes, care should be taken on when it is used and what it is used on. It can also be used on units that were forced to rampage by an ability or spell from enemy units, providing a unique bit of counterplay against such tactics that other factions lack.

*'''Predatory Senses''' - An ability found on all non-Slann/Skink units in your roster, this allows your units to detect hidden or stealthed units far sooner and from farther away than other armies (around 160 meters). This also disregards any faction/unit/terrain modifiers that enhance stealth, with the only exception being the ''Unspottable'' trait. With proper coverage, this can make ambushing or outflanking your forces extremely challenging to do discreetly.

*'''Aquatic''' - An ability found on all Skink infantry, Kroxigors (though their stat card doesn't mention the trait, they still receive the Aquatic bonus) and your Salamander/Razordon hunting packs, this not only allows them to ignore the usual penalties for fighting in water-logged environments, but gives them a 20% bonus to melee attack/defense when they do so. Considering non-aquatic infantry suffers a 20% malus to those stats when slogging around in the water, this can become a rather substantial combat buff for a significant portion of your roster (keep your Saurus dry). Potentially losing matchups will suddenly swing into your favor and that's not even factoring in your abundant poisoned weaponry and robust catalog of supportive magics to widen that gap further. As amazing as all that sounds... marsh and shallow water environments are rather few and far in between. Additionally, for the maps that ''do'' have swamped areas, coercing your opponent to willingly splash around with you is a battle all its own, one you're not likely to succeed in without careful planning.

*'''Quick Learners''' - Another Skink-exclusive ability, this greatly increases the rate that your Skinks gain ranks. This helps distinguish Skinks against comparable chaff infantry since they'll benefit from rank-boosted stats much more quickly and, as such, makes them surprisingly effective early-mid game infantry. This perk also applies to units such as Terradon Riders due to having Skink Riders.

==Campaign Mechanics==
'''Geomantic Web''': Pretty much the only unique thing every Lizardmen faction (except Nakai) has, and it's a bit lackluster. Lizardmen have access to a special view of the global map that displays the Geomantic Web, with every region capital acting as a nexus point. Once you control an entire region, you can build up Geomantic Pylons in order to strengthen the Geomantic Web, which in turn offers gradually stronger perks (like an increasing percentage to building income, higher ranked recruitment, etc) the more you increase it. At the beginning of the game, these bonuses are quite small, but as you expand and enhance the Geomantic Web over the course of the campaign, these benefits can make a genuine impact on your economy.

There are a few problems with this mechanic, however. The first major one is that you receive ''no'' bonuses if you don't control the entire region. Obviously, this isn't a problem when you're surrounded by factions you were planning on killing off, but this becomes complicated if an ally suddenly captures that last settlement in a region before you could. If it was another Lizardmen faction, you could maybe play the long game and eventually confederate them, but otherwise you'd be forced to attack them in order to claim the region so that you can actually activate the Geomantic Web benefits. Warhammer III and mods have offered ways to purchase or trade settlements, but in many cases the AI tends to value each settlement they own far more than anything else you could offer them. This often leads to lengthy wars against what could've otherwise been a valuable trading partner and buffer against foreign elements that you'd otherwise have to deal with yourself. The second major problem with the Geomantic Web is that even if you build up a regional capitol to tier V and build the appropriate pylon, it does ''nothing'' without an adjacent region ''also'' having a tier V capitol and pylon. That's right, the strength of the Geomantic Web is reliant on multiple regions being entirely under your control and also having them fully built up. This can be a time and gold consuming process that forces the Lizardmen player to take it slow; Lizardmen economy tends to be on the low side of the spectrum, made worse by their fairly expensive unit roster and lengthy build/research timeframes. And of course, if an enemy army rolls in and claims one of your minor settlements, the Geomantic Web benefits for that entire region are shut off entirely, further stemming your growth rates. The third issue with the Geomantic Web; it's a very basic and uninteractive mechanic. Aside the baked in map-painter that is the (Im)Mortal Empires campaign, there's not much incentive or direction to build up the Geomantic Web besides using it to squeeze every last bit of gold or growth you can to boost your dismal economy.

'''Rites''': Much like most of the Warhammer II races, Lizardmen have access to special rites that, generally, grant them temporary buffs for the cost of some gold. While every faction has one or two unique rites, every Lizardmen faction has access to and must perform the ''Rite of Awakening'' in order to recruit new Slann lords. Fluffy.

'''Sacrifices to Sotek (Tehenhauin)''': Tehenhauin's unique focus, in addition to the Geomantic Web, is his crusade against all of Skaven kind. By gathering captives from battles, you can sacrifice them to Sotek to gain empire-wide boosts to growth or to recruit the Blessed variants of the Lizardmen roster.

'''Dedication to the Old Ones (Nakai)''': Nakai's main mechanic as a Horde faction. By capturing settlements and dedicating them to one of three Old Ones, Nakai can unlock faction-wide buffs to his hordes. He can also spend the accumulated Favor of the Old Ones to recruit Blessed Units or activate temporary buffs or bonuses for use in battle.

'''Visions of the Old Ones (Oxyotl)''': Oxyotl's special perk, Oxyotl can teleport across the entire Warhammer Fantasy world to specific targets once per turn in order to accomplish an issued mission for rewards. By completing these missions, he can be given several rewards (such as Blessed Spawnings, increased favor from fellow Lizardmen factions or temporary buffs for certain units), but the most prominent and consistent reward are special gems used to purchase Silent Sanctums. Silent Sanctums act much like Skaven Undercities in that they are built under any settlement across the map. Doing so gives Oxyotl vision of the province that settlement is located in (and can be upgraded to give him vision of all adjacent provinces as well) as well as two building slots that can give him anything from upkeep reduction to increased ammunition and missile damage. Additionally, one such sanctum can be upgraded to act as a teleport node, allowing Oxyotl's army to warp to that Silent Sanctum at any time (much like Oxyotl's capitol).

==Lords==
The scaly faces of the Lizardmen. With the exception of the Slann Mage-Priest, which outperforms even most Legendary Lords, the Lizardmen aren't exactly a character-centric faction. Their LL's are very pointy. Most of them are great on the battlefield (with either melee or magic prowess), but their army buffs vary in usefulness and their factionwide buffs are nearly non-existant, with only a couple lords like Kroq-Gar providing any whatsoever. It's very difficult to justify taking even Legendary Lords (let alone your generic lords, which are frankly terrible) over any flavor of slann mage-priest due to the sheer versatility the latter bring to your army, especially since you are not hurting for giant, single entity beatsticks to ram into enemy formations. Slann benefit from Star Chambers in campaign, others don't, no contest, only use Slann if stacking Star Chambers (which you really should).

===Legendary Lords===
*'''Mazdamundi''' - The last of the second generation Slann (lore-wise), Mazdamundi uses magic primarily from the Lore of Light to act as a hybrid support/offensive caster. The two main selling points of Mazdamundi over a generic Slann Mage-Priest are his Stegadon mount Zlaaq and his signature spell ''Ruination of Cities''. Zlaaq allows Mazdamundi to actually engage in melee, something no other Slann can safely do, and makes him substantially more durable against most forms of attack. ''Ruination of Cities'', especially when combined with ''Banishment'', makes Mazdamundi an excellent AoE caster capable of tearing infantry focused armies to shreds with ease without chewing through your Winds of Magic reserve. These spells are limited however, being bounded spells, so make sure you wait until the right moment to utilize them. Additionally, don't put too much faith in them; as their movement patterns are random, these spells (particularly Ruination of Cities) can just as easily do nothing or even devastate your own forces as they can your enemies if you aren't careful.
::'''Warhammer III''' brings a few buffs to his toolkit; the barrier mechanic normally reserved for Tzeentch armies is now also granted to all Slann as well, helping mitigate the first few attacks against him. Additionally, to better represent the almighty toad's arcane prowess, Mazdamundi receives a 50% increase in range to all spells he casts. This turns him into a sort of magical artillery engine, as he'll have virtually no issues slapping that Banishment or Comet of Cassandora cast pretty much wherever he damn well pleases.

*'''Kroq-Gar''' - Your dedicated duelist, Kroq-Gar is an offensive powerhouse that shines when seated atop Grimloq, his faithful Carnosaur mount. Though expensive, Kroq-Gar/Grimloq can engage virtually any enemy type in the game effectively and is able to duel against many enemy lords and come out on top. Though a monstrous force on his own merits, Kroq-Gar is something of a glass cannon however and as a larger target is prone to getting mobbed by multiple units or getting focused down by ranged infantry/artillery. Another notable shortcoming is that he provides limited support for the rest of your army (a bit of a problem for all Saurus Oldbloods), and as such is not recommended for dino-heavy army builds, his bonuses to armor and leadership being less important than the healing abilities of Life Slann.

*'''Tehenhauin (DLC 1)''' - Your only Skink-Priest lord choice, Tehenhauin is something of a niche pick. He can deal solid enough damage against footlords/cavalry lords in a fight (particularly if on a Ripperdactyl) and is also capable of dealing notable damage to swarms of infantry (with his Lore of Beasts and/or with his Engine of the Gods), but he's extremely frail for a Lizardmen lord when unmounted. Never get the Fanatic skill in his skill tree; it only benefits Skink units and they are pretty trash after the mid-game.

*'''Tiktaq'to (FLC)''' - Another somewhat niche pick, Tiktaq'to is a dedicated flyer who excels in lists built with Terradons, Ripperdactyls and Coatls as the focus. Though mounted on Zwuup, Tiktaq'to is your squishiest (Legendary) Lord and lacks the support/damage options available to the others, but he's inarguably the swiftest of the bunch (which doesn't mean much compared to other flying lords and heroes). Under no circumstances is he a direct combat lord; against any duelist or large/monstrous lord he will lose handily. The only targets he can safely engage are dedicated casters, artillery and dedicated ranged infantry. Because of this, playing him requires far more finesse than what is required for virtually every other lord; even against targets he ''can'' engage effectively, prolonged combat will invariably whittle him down and may the Old Ones help you if he's surrounded while grounded. Keep a squad or two of Ripperdactyls close by to make up the difference in combat ability and to take advantage of Tiktaq'to's buffs. Also, his unique Epic weapon doesn't work if he is attacking a ground target in melee because its attack bonuses are only in effect when flying, so he's weaker than a Skink Terradon Rider when attacking ground targets UNLESS you swap out his weapon. When used in campaign, much of his value comes from his rather insane and stackable upkeep discount for flyer units. Even on higher difficulties, it is extraordinarily easy to stack enough upkeep cost reductions to have a full Coatl doomstack damn near for free (until the Supply Lines penalties become particularly swollen, at least). Additionally, his unique rite gives all of his armies the ability to easily chase down fleeing armies or attack multiple settlements a turn which can be ''devastating'' to an enemy faction if used at the right moment.

*'''Nakai (DLC 2)''' - The largest and oldest of the Kroxigor Ancients, Nakai is an infantry mulcher who (thanks to his enthusiastic animations) will literally sweep his way through the thickest blobs of infantry. Nakai possesses a few notable traits over his competitors; his ability to grant perfect vigour to nearby allies ensures they're in peak form throughout the entire battle while his Miasma of Despair can cripple enemies within his presence; a potentially nasty combo that can ensure your forces slowly but steadily chew through enemy frontlines. Unfortunately, Nakai has a few major weaknesses: As a large entity, he's vulnerable to anti-large weaponry (which does abound among baseline infantry) and is an easy, defenseless target for ranged units to snipe. He also struggles to properly duel opposing heroes/lords due to his size and janky animations making him lunge about haphazardly while they continue to poke him to death. Because of this, he tends to work best as a force multiplier for infantry builds.

*'''Gor-Rok (FLC)''' - Where Kroq-Gar is the spear, Gor-Rok stands as the shield. Gor-Rok is a dedicated footlord, among the slowest of them, but makes up for it through sheer, unbreaking resilience. As the only unit in the entire Lizardmen roster with a silver shield (55% missile block chance), Gor-Rok is able to shoulder his way through the kind of firepower that would fell a lesser Old-Blood on the approach. Gor-Rok can also stand neck-deep among hordes of angry infantry and walk out seemingly unscathed. When equipped with the ''Mace of Ulumak'', Gor-Rok can also prove a competent duelist in his own right, even if it's only in temporary bursts. Gor-Rok does falter against mounted/monstrous heroes/lords and is vulnerable to duelists with good AP values, though the Twisted and the Twilight patch has helped address the issue of him being staggered to hell and back. Never the less, Gor-Rok is a relatively cost effective Legendary Lord who can and will hold the line until the bitter end. His campaign starts with Lord Kroak fully unlocked and active, which makes his campaign among the easiest in the entire game, even on higher difficulties.
**Gor-Rok's rite will be changed in Immortal Empires, giving his units Barrier and immunity to certain debuffs, like Poison. Unlike Tzeentch, his version of barrier probably won't be as game-breaking because of how slow Saurus and that they do their best stuck-in.

*'''Oxyotl (DLC 3) ''' - The legendary daemon-slaying chameleon skink of Oyxl is the last legendary lord for the faction (at least for TWW2). As to be expected from any shape or form of a Chameleon Skink, Oxyotl is a rather cheap, stealthy character hunter who behaves somewhat like a Wood Elf Waystalker. Unlike Waystalkers, Oxyotl has a particularly nasty trick in the form of Master Predator; a toggle-able skill that reduces his movement speed in exchange for an increase in range, Snipe and the ability to remain undetectable unless the enemy gets extremely close to his position. Combined with his modestly powerful armor piercing missiles, this can quickly wear down most armored lords and heroes rather quickly if left to his own devices. Of course, as a reasonably cost effective LL, the drawbacks have to come in somewhere and for Oxyotl, that drawback is melee combat. While he has acceptable melee attack and defense, Oxyotl has no armor or damage mitigation tools at his disposal. Any combat lord or hero worth his or her salt can and will kill him in a hand-to-hand duel. Fortunately, he's fast enough that virtually no footlord can catch up to him unless you willfully allow it. He also struggles to deal with the rank and file and lacks any notable support abilities for his own forces, but that's fairly typical of the niche Oxyotl fills.

===Generic Lords===
Your generic lords aren't amazing in campaign compared to other factions, but can really shine in competitive multiplayer. In the campaign, you'll generally never want to get non-slann lords after turn 20(ish) because lizardmen Star Chamber buildings give 3 bonus levels to your slann lords, meaning they quickly outpace any other lord available. Any need for a melee lord can be filled by one of the many lizardmen heroes, who can also be easily recruited at higher starting level than the melee lords. You may still find the need to recruit cheaper stand in lords in case of an emergency, as the Rite of Awakening's cooldown is a notable hitch in acquiring more slann.

*'''Slann Mage-Priest''' - Your almighty magic toads, slann are dedicated mages who don't participate in fights directly, but wreak havoc upon your enemies from afar with their magics or supplement your forces with defensive/healing energies. Slann are among the precious few generic lords in the game who have access to the ''Greater Arcane Conduit'' ability which, when combined with their reliable casting, can allow savvy players to call upon vast reserves of the Winds of Magic long after lesser mages have tapped out of theirs. In addition to ''Greater Arcane Conduit'', each slann has access to Banishment as a bound spell as well as the ''Shield of the Old Ones''; a large AoE defensive buff that applies a 22% damage resistance modifier to all allied units within it's bubble. Understandably, for all their arcane might, slann are practically helpless if caught in a fight. They are the single slowest unit in your entire army and are quite chunky, making them easy targets up close or at range. To this end, you'll almost always want a screening unit of Temple Guard (or at least shielded saurus) to keep enemies from ganking them. Outside of that, there are four varieties of Slann Mage-Priests, each dedicated to a specific lore of magic:
**'''Fire Slann''' - When you want to burn the [[HERESY|heretic]] in holy fire for the Old Ones. Combined with their bound Banishment, fire slann are capable of mulching clumps of infantry wholesale and can even churn out respectable single target damage with their Fireball and Piercing Bolts of Burning spells. Fire damage is particularly useful against the myriad of enemies with regeneration, and practically mandatory when facing undead crises in campaign. Being able to buff an entire line of saurus with an upcast Flaming Sword/Cloak of Flame can turn the game in your favor.
**'''Life Slann''' - These guys are the MVP in any monster heavy list; though you have a few other options for healing (such as the Revivification Bastilidon, high slann and the newly added Skink Oracle), life slann are still the uncontested kings at it. If you want an army built on the back of beasts, a life slann is essential to keeping them in the fight. With a life slann, you can wipe away any damage your stack of monsters take during the routing phase of a battle, making them both tactically and strategically important. Pair one with a Revivification Bastilidon to very rapidly resurrect slain models in any infantry unit and bring back even the most tattered units to full fighting strength. Additionally, should you encounter blobs of infantry that pose a notable danger to your larger beasties, Life slann are able to slap down Dwellers Below to deal frankly startling amounts of damage to practically every non-flying unit caught within its radius.
**'''Light Slann''' - Light slann are fantastic supports for an infantry-heavy army namely due to two spells: Net of Amyntok and Birona's Timewarp. Like every other army, Net of Amyntok is an excellent tool for pinning down faster cavalry from the likes of Bretonnia or the Dark Elves so that your ''much'' slower saurus can catch up and engage them in melee (or to keep them still while your Salamanders incinerate them wholesale). Birona's Timewarp can turn the tide in a key engagement when used properly. Offensively, being able to cast Banishment much more frequently can also deal devastating damage to enemy infantry. That said, even your Greater Arcane Conduit will struggle to keep you topped off; the Lore of Light can consume your Winds of Magic quite quickly.
**'''High Slann''' - Similarly to light slann, high slann are a hybrid offensive/support caster. Unlike the Lore of Light, you do have access to minor magical healing through Apotheosis and have access to an excellent anti-flier vortex spell in Tempest (Net of Amyntok is superior in most cases, however). High slann offensively specialize in single target damage and can deal devastating amounts of it between the Arcane Unforging and Soul Quench spells, giving them a solid niche against duelist lords/heroes and larger monsters.
**'''Heavens Slann''' - Multiplayer only, the Heavens Slann is unfortunately the worst slann of the bunch. It's not that the Heavens lore is lacking nor is it the slann himself, but the fact that he faces strict competition against your Skink Priests of all things. A Skink Priest of Heavens, though lacking the Greater Arcane Conduit, is a much faster/smaller target by default and has access to several mount options that make him much more flexible offensively or defensively. Additionally, as a hero, you can take a more offensively focused melee lord or a slann attuned to a different lore for more magical variety. Even if you're only running one with nothing but the crest on his skinky-head, the cheaper price alone makes the Heavens slann a hard sell comparatively.
:::'''Warhammer III''': All Slann become a bit more defensible with the boon of their own personal barriers, a ''much'' needed buff to these fat frog's personal defenses. Of course, barriers will do little to assuage prolonged and unsupported melee combat, but it will help protect them from the stray blast or occasional skirmish.
:::'''Immortal Empires''': A minor nerf to the Slann, Star Chambers can now only ever be constructed in Province capitals, ''severely'' curbing how quickly you can recruit high-level Slann right out the gate. They can still be abused, though you now need to capture ''many'' more territories before you can crank out Slann on par with their Mortal Empires power level. The good news is, the Rite of Awakening is now free to use once unlocked and can be spammed on cooldown to try farming for second/third generation Slann.

*'''Saurus Old-Blood''' - Offensive duelists through and through, saurus old-bloods are flexible masters of combat who can lead on foot, on the back of a cold one, or atop a mighty carnosaur (you'll usually want one on a carnosaur). Compared to the kroxigor ancient, saurus old-bloods are less powerful in melee combat but can be much faster and have marginally better faction support skills. For the purposes of both Multiplayer and Campaign, you'll want to avoid taking Old-Bloods as your lord (unless you have ''no'' DLC content). Their role can easily be filled by Saurus Scar Veterans, who ''don't'' take up your only Lord slot for the army (and are, for all intents and purposes, identical sans Campaign skill trees). If you insist on taking an Old-Blood, take Kroq-Gar. Otherwise, a Slann or Kroxigor Ancient would be better suited for your needs.
::'''Immortal Empires''': Saurus Old-Bloods get some new life pumped into their battle-tested bones in Immortal Empires, at least when fighting under Kroq-Gar's banner. Universal 15% Upkeep discounts for all armies led by Saurus Old-Bloods and an additional +1% Weapon Strength boost for each level your Old-Blood gains make these guys your go-to beatsticks. Their discounted upkeep costs also make it easier to field ''more'' armies which, especially in the mid-late game, is particularly valuable as your empire's borders outpace your glacial economy's ability to upgrade settlement infrastructure in a timely manner. Slann are, of course, still quite valuable, though with Sacred Spawning Caverns and Temple Guard Barracks providing increased starting ranks to Old-Bloods and Scar-Veterans, it's hard to say no to these guys. At least when riding with Kroq-Gar.

*'''Red-Crested Skink Chief (DLC 1)''' - Your discount Lord and the one you'll want to take if you want to reserve as much money for your big beasties as possible. Of course, you could splurge a little to put him atop an ancient stegadon to scorch swaths of infantry with the Engine of the Gods (though if you're going to do that, you may as well spring for Tehenhauin so that you at least have access to the Lore of Beasts as well). The RCSC is a competent combatant equipped with poisonous, armor-piercing attacks that can make him surprisingly dangerous in a fight, though like everything skinky, he's a particularly squishy lord when unmounted. The best use you can put him to is boosting your heroes in a 'Pompous' trait-stacking lizardman hero army, which makes an already broken strategy even stronger.

*'''Kroxigor Ancient (DLC 2)''' - Baby Nakais for those who don't quite feel up for splurging on the big boy himself. Kroxigor ancients are quite literally just watered down versions of Nakai; though they won't grant perfect vigour to all friendly forces near them, they will still wade through most infantry due to their size and mass and put out such raw damage that most non-elite infantry will falter swiftly against them. However, just like Nakai, they are completely helpless at range, are vulnerable to AP and anti-large weapons and are ''slow''. In competitive multiplayer, though they are still a bit of a niche pick, they are much more attractive than Nakai due to their cheaper price and because they have access to the Amulet of Itzl, which grants the Kroxigor Ancient 66% damage resistance for a short time. This can give them enough of an edge to eek out against enemy duelists or to survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

==Heroes==
As said, the Lizardmen characters can be a little sub-par compared to other factions (with the exception of the Skink Oracle, see below), but their selection is surprisingly versatile, and the Lizardmen have some of the best ''mounts'' in the game, which really helps push their characters battlefield potential. The Lizardmen also have one of the strongest Legendary Heroes in the game: Lord Kroak. These guys are capable of dealing immense damage to your enemies and ''all'' of them (except Kroak) can be mounted on one of your massive dinosaurs.

===Legendary Hero===
You've only got the one, but he's all you'll need. Lord Kroak is your expensive but powerful offensive caster and forms the center of many army formations.
*'''Lord Kroak (FLC)''' - The first of the Slann doesn't let something as trivial as death inconvenience him, or keep him from kicking warmblood ass to the Old World and back. Lord Kroak is one of a very select few heroes in the game with access to ''Greater Arcane Conduit'' (which can be paired with another Slann's Greater Arcane Conduit), making him a fantastic force multiplier in a caster-heavy list just from being present. For better or worse, Kroak doesn't have access to any lore of magic and only has two notable abilities. But ''damn'' can those abilities turn the tide of battle. His only bound ability (other than the universal Cold-Blooded) is the ''Supreme Shield of the Old Ones'', an upgraded version of the regular Shield of the Old Ones that grants allies a 44% damage resistance while within it (and stacks with the regular version if you're really in a bind). The only spell(s) he has access to is his signature Deliverance of Itza (and its three varying strengths). Deliverance of Itza, ''the'' reason you're bringing him, can virtually delete entire units from existence with an efficiency only known to the Winds of Death spell, but it has a few major drawbacks. First, it is intensely mana hungry: you'll typically only get one or two DoI (III) casts per battle before you run dangerously low on magic. By relying on DoI I or II, you won't consume as much magic per cast, but the difference in damage dealt becomes very apparent. Secondly, there is a very lengthy and obvious tell for when the spell is cast; most competent opponents will be able to move their forces away from the blast before it goes off unless you manage to pin them down with supporting spells like the Net of Amyntok or simply bodyblocking them from all sides. Thirdly, this spell is virtually useless against single entities such as Lords/Heroes and giant monsters, meaning he'll do little towards more elite doomstack lists. Despite all these cons working against him, a well timed Deliverance of Itza can and will win you battles if you plan accordingly. The best part, it deals absolutely no friendly fire damage. [[Meme|You may fire when ready]].

===Generic Heroes===
In the campaign, all Lizardmen heroes benefit from the 'Humble' trait, which appears on Lords and Heroes at random. This lets you recruit them at 2 additional ranks higher than their default rank, with unlimited stacking potential, making them stronger and more versatile earlier in the game than heroes of other factions. In the late-game, you can disband Humble heroes as you build more Slann Star-Chambers, however these are expensive buildings for non-Hexoatl factions; for the 6000 gold needed for 1 Star-Chamber, you can hire at least 4 Humble heroes for 8 bonus levels. Of course, those extra heroes each take up their respective hero slots and will take a modest sum out of your income every turn and as such are less efficient in the long run compared to Star Chambers.

*'''Saurus Scar-Veteran''' - A step down from the Old-Blood, Scar-Veterans behave in much the same manner as your generic saurus lords. Vicious and powerful combatants, Scar-Veterans are built to brazenly charge into combat and deal bloody death to all who stand in their way. The real reason you'll want to take any Scar-Vets isn't for the saurus himself, however badass he may be, but for the carnosaur mount you can put him on. Though a more expensive version of the feral carnosaur, Scar-Vets are immune to rampaging (and can indeed stop others from rampaging thanks to their Cold Blooded ability) and have a slightly stronger statline, making them excellent all-round threats to whatever your opponent might be packing. These Scar-Vets are ideal choices for armies led by slann-mage priests; they won't be competing for Winds of Magic like the skink priests and will more than make up for the slann's melee deficiency. If you want to keep him cheaper, you can take one on foot to lead fellow saurus infantry into battle, or stick in on a Cold One to ride with the rest of your cavalry. A modestly popular tactic in Multiplayer is to take two of these guys on Cold Ones to act as hero/lord hunters.
::'''Immortal Empires''': Scar-Veterans, though still quite capable in every other Lizardmen subfaction, truly shine when fighting under Kroq-Gar's flag. +30% experience gain and +1% weapon strength per earned rank (max buff of 50%) can make these guys quite vicious very quickly. Since the Humble trait, the Star Chamber and Temple Guard Barracks rank boost effects stack, you can also recruit highly ranked Scar-Veterans ''very'' early on in the campaign (relatively, that is). It's to such a degree that you could very easily start cranking out freshly recruited Scar-Veterans on Carnosaurs with a bonus 18% or higher Weapon Strength buff right out of the gate. Put in an army lead by a Saurus Old-Blood for that 15% upkeep reduction and you have yourself a solidly cost effective doomstack that, post level 20, will just respawn back home if they ever bite off more than they can chew.

*'''Skink Priest''' - Skink priests are your humble, mortal casters. Cheap and nimble, these guys can easily outrun most footslogging infantry and are fantastically flexible mages that can fill any offensive or defensive holes your army might have. If mounted on a terradon, their speed will be unparalleled (for Lizardmen); they'll be able to rain magical death anywhere on the battlefield with ease and can quickly deliver support to your forces no matter how spread out they may be. Alternatively, you may mount them on stegadons or ancient stegadons to make them terrifying all-rounders, though their price tag will quickly reflect that. probably want to stick with the regular stegadon, great hybrid artillery and melee monster
**'''Skink Priest (Heavens)''' - The Heavens discipline is among the better offensive lores of magic in the game for the instant raw damage output it's capable of. Wind Blast and Chain Lightning will be your go-to offensive spells. Comet of Cassandora, though powerful, should generally be avoided due to how long its casting time is. Harmonic Convergence and Curse of the Midnight Wind are staples of support sets and can turn your saurus infantry into immovable walls of tooth and claw.
**'''Skink Priest (Beasts)''' - Formerly your worst discipline, the Lore of Beasts has recently received a bit of a tweaking to make it considerably more attractive and usable. It's still among the least potent of your available magics, but it is among the most flexible in utility. Wyssan's Wild Form and Pann's Impenetrable Pelt provide rather significant combat buffs (particularly when stacked) while Curse of Anraheir debilitates your enemies. Offensively, Flock of Doom is a fantastic and cheap chaff cleaner that affects any units that have at least one model within its 30m range. For your single target needs, The Amber Spear allows your caster to act as impromptu artillery should the need arise. Formerly ''the'' reason to take a Beasts caster was for the Transformation of Kadon; being able to summon up to two Manticores to flank enemy formations or dive into backlines can have a massive impact on the flow of battle, but a bump up to ''20'' Winds of Magic per summon makes it challenging to make much use of your other spells in multiplayer.

*'''Skink Chief''' - Your skirmishing duelist, skink chiefs cripple enemy forces with their poisonous darts so that your army can face weaker resistance. Skink chiefs are a force to be feared when mounted on a stegadon, allowing them to easily face down many enemy heroes/lords in a one-on-one fight. In the campaign, the ability to build skink chief capacity-increasing buildings in minor settlements means you can spam them across the map or stack up to 19 of them into an army, which can be hilariously broken depending on the traits and items you equip them with.

*'''Skink Oracle (DLC 3)''' - By far the best Hero for the Lizardmen, the Skink Oracle brings a cavalcade of well rounded offensive and supportive magic to the field atop a mighty Troglodon. And only on a Troglodon, so he's very much an "all or nothing" type of unit. The first major reason the Skink Oracle makes for a popular pick is the fact that he's your only non-Slann source of magical healing, potentially freeing up your Lord choice for a more offensive beat stick like Kroq-Gar or even a Kroxigor Ancient. Secondly, as a hero, not only does your Skink Oracle provide a use of Cold-Blooded for the rest of your forces, but his own Troglodon will never rampage. Magical prowess aside, this alone is worth considering the rather steep price-tag. Speaking of, the Troglodon allows the Skink Oracle to function as a mid-range anti-Monster skirmisher. Combined with a potential Fireball cast here or there, the Skink Oracle ''excels'' at chunking opposing Lords/Heroes, especially if they're atop a mount or naturally monstrous in size. Just don't have him brazenly lead the charge into melee combat, as he won't last terribly long in it. If your army would like to use a non-Lore of Life Slann or any non-Slann Lord for that matter (effectively any LL banner army), a Skink Oracle and a Revivification Bastilodon or two are excellent tools to keep your forces in tip-top shape so that they can keep doing what they do best.

==Units==
Many lizardmen units are available in standard and 'blessed' variants. Blessed units are only made available in the campaign by completing random timed missions, such as getting 1000 kills or winning 4 battles, but make up for their randomness and limited quantity by being free to recruit at any time in any army and by having at least one extra ability or superior stat over their contemporary counterparts. They aren't to be confused with Regiments of Renown, unique units recruited at max rank and limited to one instance per. In casual multiplayer matches with Unit Caps turned off, Blessed Units are recruitable for only a modest bump in price over their generic counterparts.

===Infantry===
Infantry provide the foundation of every army in Total War: Warhammer, and the Lizardmen are no different. Indeed, even the humble skinks have their place.

====Melee Infantry====
*'''Skink Cohort''' - Skinks armed with little macuahuitls and shields, skink cohorts are cheap chaff units primarily used to fill out rosters or to support your more expensive infantry actually doing the killing. Despite being shielded, these guys will die by the score due to their pitiful defensive statline if they face any frontline infantry head on and are one of the few lizardmen units prone to routing from leadership issues. Having said that, skink cohorts are among the fastest cheap infantry units in the game and are still rather decent combatants when fighting similar unarmored units and tend to win such engagements (namely against chaff or low tier infantry like Bretonnian peasantry or Vampire Count zombies). Indeed, their speed is invaluable for flanking enemies tied up by your saurus warriors and chasing routing enemies off the map. When pinching pennies, you can't argue with that. In campaign these guys can be skipped entirely for the javelin version instead as the missile attack for 10 extra upkeep per turn is leagues better than just having the club.

*'''Red-Crested Skinks (DLC 1)''' - Angry skinks wielding poisonous, armor-piercing warhammers. Red-Crested Skinks provide an invaluable source of early game/cheap melee AP damage and poison, though they're less effective against unarmored targets as a whole compared to regular Skink Cohorts. They lack both shields and armor and as they are simply skinks, they will die in droves unless they're taking refuge among the far burlier saurus warriors. On that note, RC skinks synergize excellently with saurus warriors, as they can simultaneously chew through armored units the saurus tend to bounce off of and further cripple these enemies with poison, allowing your much slower saurus to both catch up to and butcher them with greater ease. Just like skink cohorts, these guys are at home in watery environments and are easily able to outflank many slower infantry units.
**'''Cohort of Sotek (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Unbreakable angry skinks wielding poisonous, armor-piercing warhammers. These guys have a unique ability, ''Refuse to Die''. When active, no skink models can die (they can still take damage, however), which can maximize their damage output when taking sudden burst damage or ensure that they hold the enemy in place for a precious few more seconds. The fact that they're unbreakable really synergizes well with this perk, as it means that your opponent is going to have to commit to completely eradicating the unit (which, admittedly, isn't really ''that'' tall an ask all things considered). This can buy some of your other forces some precious moments to regroup should the tide be against your favor.
:::'''Campaign Note''': Auto-Resolve tends to value every flavor of Red-Crested Skink just slightly more than the dirt they stand on, so unless you are ok with them taking massive casualties or outright getting wiped out every time you click that auto-resolve button, you'll either need to fight your battles manually or pick up regular Skink Cohorts if you need chaff infantry to pad out your forces.

*'''Saurus Warriors''' - Saurus warriors are probably the first thing that comes to mind when one mentions the lizardmen, and for good reason. Resilient, determined and natural fighters, saurus warriors are one of the most durable base line infantry units in the game due to their high HP and armor and can hold their own even against the more elite infantry options of other factions (Note: they can fight a unit of chaos warriors to stalemate). Should they find themselves in a losing matchup, their naturally high leadership will keep them standing firm against the enemy far longer than their equivalents in other factions would, even if they lose control and rampage towards their inevitable deaths (in game II. They've since become far more disciplined in game III). To compensate, saurus are slow and are prone to being kited, so skink skirmishers/cohorts should be utilized to help pin down the enemy line until the saurus make it into combat. Saurus warriors are available in both standard and shielded variants, but the only reason to not get the shielded version is if you need every last gold coin you can rub together for your bigger monsters on a tight, competitive budget.
**'''Blessed Saurus Warriors''' - Shielded saurus warriors with an even higher base health and [[awesome|perfect vigour]]. These guys make fantastically cost efficient walls that will never tire no matter how hard they're pushed. In the campaign, they are one of the better frontline choices you can give your non-doomstack armies that can find a place even into the late game, so long as they manage to survive and rank up. Gor-Rok, if chosen as your initial legendary lord, can use his rite to grant further defensive bonuses and ''unbreakable'' to them (in game II. Game III replaces unbreakable with the barrier ability and immunity to hostile effects like Poison instead); they will never yield.

*'''Saurus Spears''' - Warriors equipped with anti-large spears for engaging cavalry and monsters. They're nearly identical to regular saurus warriors in every other way, though they do slightly less damage against regular infantry in exchange for their anti-large speciality. Like the warriors, they come in unshielded or, for a slight premium, shielded variants.
**'''Blessed Saurus Spears''' - Buffed up saurus spears with shields, the blessed variant of these saurus are dramatically inferior to their standard cousins since they lack perfect vigour. Instead, the bonus ability granted to them is Forest Strider, a perk that grants additional melee attack and defense buffs to them while fighting in forests. If you can lure cavalry and large monsters into forests, where they'll suffer additional penalties simply due to how forests interact with them, you can deal impressive sustained damage to them in short order. Unfortunately, this ability does nothing for them outside of forests and ''many'' battlefields will have a dearth of forest patches that you can fight in. Additionally, uncooperative opponents will generally avoid trying to engage your forces inside forests and trying to convince them otherwise may prove too time consuming for what it's worth. Regardless, they still have more health than the regular saurus spears. That's always a plus.
**'''Legion of Chaqua (RoR, DLC 1)''' - The Legion of Chaqua, thanks to their special ability, are able to provide themselves and all nearby allied units a surprising 44% missile resistance for a limited time upon activation. This is an invaluable skill to have on the approach, as many of your unshielded infantry and larger monsters are vulnerable to being focused down by the much superior ranged infantry found in other armies and can be further supplemented by a Slann's Shield of the Old Ones if necessary. Otherwise, these guys simply behave exactly as Saurus Spears are expected to.

*'''Temple Guards''' - The fearsome Temple Guards, renowned for their devotion to their Slann masters, stand ready to slaughter all who'd bring harm to their otherwise vulnerable charges. Temple Guard are the only "elite" infantry within the lizardmen roster, which is more a testament to how strong regular saurus are compared to the melee infantry of other armies. Speaking of how strong regular saurus are, Temple Guard fall short of them against unarmored infantry on the whole. This isn't to say Temple Guard aren't impressive; their heightened statline makes them less likely to budge than regular saurus are while their charge defense and bonus damage against large foes and predominantly armor-piercing weaponry lets them effectively face down a majority of late-game/elite cavalry, monsters and even armored infantry much more effectively than regular saurus. Unfortunately, this general prowess reflects heavily in their price tag and you'll struggle to field multiple units of these without heavily cutting into your other options.
**'''Blessed Temple Guards''' - Recolored Temple Guards, these guys are a slightly more offensive version of their default variants thanks to an increased charge bonus. This makes them significantly more well rounded and will allow you to more flexibly choose how you engage your enemies; do you brace and negate an incoming charge, or is the foe squishy enough where a counter charge would be more punishing? All in all a nice upgrade if only for the usual buff to their health blessed units receive.
**'''Star-Chamber Guardians (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Take Temple Guard and make their weapons also deal magical damage: you now have ''the'' most elite infantry unit available to the Lizardmen. Having magical attacks allows the SCG to engage many undead/demonic forces that utilize high physical resistance and cut them down with ease. SCG also serve as excellent bodyguards for lords (particularly Slann) due to their Guardian ability and when properly supported with healing magic, these guys will ''never'' die. Their only major weakness of note is prolonged anti-armor ranged firepower and artillery, but as they are armored and shielded and have a frankly gargantuan health pool, it will take a long time to fully whittle them down.

====Missile Infantry====
*'''Skink Cohort with Javelins''' - Skinks armed with little macuahuitls, shields and three javelins each. For pennies over a regular skink cohort, you can give them limited ranged support with poisonous javelins; a fantastic way to soften up an enemy unit for your front line infantry on the charge. With their speed, they can also easily circle about and pepper an opposing unit's backsides before charging in to cut off their escape while your saurus chew through them. Once they throw all their javelins, they're identical to the default skink cohort in virtually every way. Generally, if you're planning on taking skink cohorts at all, you should almost always pick these guys up over the standard versions (unless you ''really'' need every gold coin you can possibly scrape together for a specific competitive multiplayer build).

*'''Skink Skirmishers''' - Skinks equipped with little blowpipes and poisonous darts, and your first dedicated missile infantry. Skink skirmishers lack the sheer range available to most other factions and struggle to do damage against armored opponents. Instead, they should be used exclusively as harassers; their speed, ability to fire while moving and vanguard deployment options allow them to easily get into flanking positions and kite enemy infantry while inflicting poison onto them for when the rest of your army catches up. These guys will melt quickly if caught in the crosshairs of opposing archers/gunners and are pitiful in a fistfight, so you should only get one or two of these units at most, and only if you absolutely cannot afford taking chameleon skinks instead.
**'''Blessed Skink Skirmishers''' - Skink skirmishers with more health and an innate magic spell resistance. This extra durability is nice, but the spell resistance in particular isn't going to see much use due to these guys rather high mobility and any targetable spell an opponent ''could'' cast on them would be served much better against... literally anything else in your army. There's virtually no reason to bring these in Multiplayer (even if Blessed units are allowed for the match) and the only reason you'll want to recruit them in any of your Campaigns would be if you're in desperate need of reinforcements for a beat-up army you simply cannot afford to lose and you just ''happen'' to have some Blessed Skink Skirmishers to burn. The moment you are in a position where you can recruit/replace other units, these guys should be the first to go.

*'''Chameleon Skinks''' - Ninja skinks equipped with little blowpipes and poisonous darts. Though fewer in number than basic skink skirmishers, chameleon skinks are considerably more durable thanks to their flat 40% missile resistance and have a much easier time sneaking around enemies thanks to their Chameleon ability. This, along with their loose formation, can make them surprisingly effective at countering enemy archers. They otherwise fulfill the exact same harassment role your regular skink skirmishers do and deal a disappointingly low amount of damage against armored targets. Also, like skink skirmishers, they are unable to curve their shots well meaning they're less effective in siege battles than the archers of other races.
**'''Blessed Chameleon Skinks''' - Slightly swole Chameleon Skinks with twice the charge bonus (which is barely anything, especially combined with their rather tragic melee statline) and a few extra darts per skink. More ammunition is always welcome in a firefight, but it's hardly a game changer. Regardless, better stats do open up options and if you have a choice between these and regular Chameleon Skinks, may as well pick these guys.
:::Oxyotl's banner army in the campaign should almost entirely consist of these guys. Between the AP bonus damage, variant ammunitions he can grant them in addition to giving them perks like Snipe, there's almost no force these guys can't just shoot to death with relative ease. Siege Battles or battles featuring multiple enemy banner armies might become tricky, but that's why you always have at least a couple Skink Oracles or Skink Chiefs with Stalk to clean up shop.

*'''Chameleon Stalkers (DLC 3)''' - Angry ninja skinks with little blowpipes and [[what|explosive darts]]. Chameleon Stalkers fill the rather niche role of shock infantry for the Lizardmen. Each skink is equipped with two Precursor blowpipe shots that deal rather impressive burst damage against unarmored targets either on the charge or when falling back from a melee engagement. As they possess the same Chameleon ability their standard Chameleon Skink kin have, they do have a lot of wiggle room to get into an optimal charging position and can quickly fade away from the fray when things go south. Speaking of things going south, though Stalkers are reasonably decent at combat due to their poisoned attacks and mediocre stats, they still tend to lose against medium tier and above infantry or anything with armor. That said, even against armored infantry, much of the Stalker's value comes from the heavy formation disruption their Precursor Rounds cause, slowing down their targets and interrupting their charge so that you can take the initiative in the ensuing engagement. They can also deal decent burst damage against single entity units in a pinch, but this is generally an inefficient use of them.

====Monstrous Infantry====
*'''Kroxigors''' - Kroxigors, as to be expected from 12-foot tall crocodile men, are beastly armor-piercing anti-infantry blenders who can carve through lower tier units like butter and are sturdy enough to hold back more elite units for your more capable specialists. Though quite tanky and reasonably quick (compared to your saurus), they are still large (with the weaknesses all that entails) and very vulnerable to getting shot to hell and back or getting slammed by larger cavalry/monsters. While Kroxigors do hit damn hard, their total damage is divided between three subcatagories: Base, Anti-Infantry and Armor-Piercing. As such, they only really get the most bang for their buck when thrown against armored infantry. While they are able to tie up units that fall outside of those categories, they become dramatically less effective and ''will'' lose the grindfest if they aren't supported. Just like in the tabletop, they pair fantastically with supporting skinks to flank and tie up enemy forces or debuff them with poison to make them even more vulnerable to the kroxigors.
**'''Blessed Kroxigors''' - If you thought regular kroxigors were thick, you haven't seen these thunder-thighs strut their stuff. Though the standard health increase is all well and good, blessed kroxigors received a substantial buff to their charge bonus. This can make them surprisingly deadly cycle-chargers which, combined with their anti-infantry/armor niche, will let them crack massive holes in front lines.

*'''Sacred Kroxigors (DLC 2)''' - Kroxigors with [[power fists]]. These magical boxing gloves turn your kroxigors into all-purpose ass pounders who punch holes in armored foes effortlessly and tear through things with low magic resistance like so much wet paper. Much like regular kroxigors, sacred kroxigors get the most bang for their buck when supported by skinks (ideal) or saurus (when you don't want to move from that spot). Unlike standard Kroxigors, Sacred Kroxigors are much more well rounded offensively and will perform much more efficiently against opponents regular Kroxigors tend to struggle or stalemate against. Additionally, as the only non-RoR/Lord unit in your roster with Magical Attacks, these guys are your go-to melee force to deal with Ethereal units, Treemen and other high-physical resistance targets. Additionally, as Magic Resist is slated to change to only affect damage caused by Spells, Sacred Kroxigors will be very well suited to deal with the forces of the Dwarfs and Khorne going forward.
**'''Cohort of Huatl (RoR, DLC 2)''' - Sacred kroxigors with much higher physical resistance and straight up sunder enemy armor, allowing units like your saurus warriors to deal more damage to them.

===Cavalry===
Lizardmen cavalry are slow, for cavalry. They will never catch horse-mounted cavalry of other races, and it is risky to use them as a distraction if your enemy is using anything more than basic cavalry archers. Expect lizardmen cavalry to take heavy losses in prolonged combat, and learn to cycle-charge with them.

*'''Feral Cold Ones''' - A pack of clever girls, with no saurus riders. Feral cold ones are extremely speedy units (by lizardmen standards) that effectively function as light cavalry built for chasing down skirmishers, ranged back lines and artillery pieces. Their ability to cause fear also comes in handy for landing rear charges against a foe tied up in combat with your frontline infantry, as well as ensuring routed enemies leave the battlefield permanently. Unfortunately, their raw damage output is rather low and they themselves are particularly frail and prone to rampaging, which means a bad engagement will result in a swift end for them. They're cheap as chips though, so you can't complain too much over losing 'em.
**Being able to summon them after performing the Rite of Primeval Glory is really handy when facing off against Skaven artillery.

*'''Cold One Riders''' - Standard cold one riders are your first full-blooded cavalry option. Though significantly swifter than your infantry, cold one riders lag behind their competition in other factions and are particularly vulnerable to anti-large cavalry units because of this. In an ideal setting, cold one riders will serve as the hammer to the anvil that is your saurus frontline; decisive charges into the rear of enemy formations can deal heavy damage and can completely lock down ranged infantry or artillery. Being both armored and shielded gives them respectable staying power as well and allows them to remain in extended combat should the need arise. That said, like most cavalry, they truly shine when they're able to freely cycle charge to maximize their damage output and heavily abuse enemy morale.

*'''Cold One Spear-Riders''' - The name says it all; these are cold one riders with spears. This turns them into a dedicated anti-large cavalry unit that can deal not inconsequential damage to opposing cavalry, artillery and monsters. Unfortunately, in cav v. cav engagements, cold one spear riders will often fall short due to their below average speed letting many opposing options run circles around them. As such, they tend to work best when used defensively. When opposing cavalry buckles down to charge into your flanks, counter charge them with your spear-riders to either intercept or divert them from your more vulnerable elements. They do deal decent armor-piercing damage on their own right, but they'll often lose against more elite cavalry options and their strength quickly diminishes in prolonged engagements.
**'''Blessed Cold One Spear-Riders''' - Blessed cold one spears are extremely similar to the Pok-Hopak Cohort in the sense that they both don't run the risk of rampaging. This is a very valuable perk on a unit that will often find itself separated from your main army, especially when combined with their heightened durability. If you have a need for cold one spears and have access to these, there's literally no reason not to take them.
**'''Pok-Hopak Cohort (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Fearless and focused spear-riders, these guys are both immune to psychology ''and'' lack primal instincts, meaning you'll never need to worry about them rampaging or fleeing from enemy monsters. Additionally, the Pok-Hopak cohort is able to utilize vanguard deployment, giving them a tactical edge over their generic counterparts that cannot be underestimated. If you're thinking about taking a unit of spear-riders, there's literally no reason to not just take these guys instead.

*'''Horned Ones''' - Your only elite cavalry, horned ones are simply buffed up cold one riders, plain and simple. They are significantly faster than all of your cold one riders and as such are on par with the cavalry options found in many other factions. They pack a meaty punch with a rather chunky charge bonus to boot, letting them simply smash through frontline infantry as both hammer and anvil. You'll be paying for that swollen statline though, as they are one of your most expensive non-monster units out of your entire roster (they're even more expensive than some of your monsters).
**'''Blessed Horned Ones''' - Just like the blessed cold one spears, blessed horned ones won't rampage when caught unawares. Considering these are your elite cav units, you will ''always'' want to make sure they can get out of a bad engagement whenever you need them to.

*'''Terradon Riders''' - Javelin skinks riding Terradons and carrying stone bombs. While relatively fast for the lizardmen, terradon riders are among the slowest flying cavalry in the game, and are a fairly niche choice in battle. This niche can best be summed up as aerial harriers, ideal for sniping out artillery, mages or unarmored infantry or monsters (which is admittedly a bit of a rarity). Their attacks also apply Poison, which makes them a little more useful than their raw stats make them seem on paper and helps further support other units in your army. Additionally, they are quite micro-friendly since they are able to fire and move with their javelins and, with proper positioning, can drop a once-per-battle set of stone bombs to deal massive damage to clustered up infantry beneath their wings. That said, as fairly large, unarmored and slow moving targets with fairly pitiful melee stats, these guys can be very easy to snipe out of the air by decent missile infantry and are ''very'' vulnerable to pretty much anything else that is also in the air with them. In a pinch, they can also be used as rear-chargers to help route enemies or tie down missile infantry, but Old Ones help them if something points an extra long stick at them. If you're facing an infantry heavy army, Fireleech Bolas Terradons tend to net you better value.
**'''Pahuax Sentinels (RoR, DLC 1)''' - These special edition terradon riders are particularly nimble and have an innate resistance to melee and missile attacks that gives them ''far'' more staying power than any of your other flying cavalry. If only to serve as a distraction, these guys can be used in lieu of skink priests/chiefs in an attempt to waste your opponent's missile infantry/artillery ammo. Otherwise, use them to harass enemy units with poisoned missiles and to escort routing foes off the battlefield.

*'''Fireleech Bolas Terradon Riders''' - These are far better Terradon Riders than the base variant. While they no longer inflict Poison on enemy units, their fireleech bolas deal explosive fire damage, inflicting greater damage overall against infantry formations and fire-weak entities while dealing higher leadership penalties in the process. Like regular Terradon Riders, they also can fire and move, letting them more or less function as prehistoric bombers. They still carry stone bombs, which can be devastatingly effective when used in concert with a line of saurus warriors pinning enemy melee units or shutting down artillery, but just like regular Terradon Riders, they are fairly useless in melee and are terribly vulnerable to other fliers and ranged missile fire. If you're dealing with smaller, physically larger units (monstrous infantry or single-entity monsters) with low armor, Terradon Riders are more efficient against them.
**'''Blessed Terradon Riders''' - Blessed Terradon Riders, aside the traditional increase in health, only received one minor adjustment over their basic counterparts; speed. At a speed stat of 110 as opposed to the standard 90, Blessed Terradon Riders can manuever across the battlefield notably more quickly than any other unit in your entire army. Nice, for a unit designed to harass and waste/dodge enemy missile fire, but ultimately a rather minor selling point on an admittedly mediocre and situational unit.
**Fireleech Bolas can be used to game the AI, especially when you're facing off against the Chaos Invasion. Even having just three of these guys bombard the Chaos Hellcannons can save you a lot of grief, and you're not really going to miss them if they got shot down. They're also really helpful against Vampire Coast, as they're one of the few skirmishers you have that can raise hell against a zombie gunline/artillery.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders (DLC 1)''' - The obsidian knife of lizardmen flyers. Ripperdactyls are your flying can-openers with a minor bonus against infantry and a ''massive'' AP bonus. Combined with their solid melee attack stat and Frenzy bonus, these guys utterly shred armored foot soldiers. Unfortunately, their non-existent armor, low melee defense, low model count and large size makes these guys terribly susceptible to counterattack. If they get boxed in, much less by anything with an anti-large bonus, you will be impressed by how quickly they die. Because of this, and the fact much of their damage is dedicated against armored targets, Ripperdactyls tend to be a bit of a niche choice in army lists not built around Tiktaq'to. None-the-less, they are much more effective than Terradon Riders at shutting down missile infantry formations and artillery platforms. Just make sure you are constantly aware of the tactical situation and only call them down when you can support them or escape before enemy reinforcements manage to pin them down.
**'''Colossadon Hunters (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Bigger, hungrier ripperdactyls with a penchant for bigger prey; an additional anti-large bonus can turn them into cavalry buzzsaws and can let them deal sickening damage to mounted enemy lords or cavalry and are the best/only option for fighting flying enemy lords/heroes on semi-even ground. Suffice to say, they're still very weak to anti-large weaponry themselves and will seldom win against combat dedicated lords/heroes in a "1"v1 fight. As such, they'll need support through terradon riders (for the poison) as well as additional ripperdactyls to stand an honest shot against such a foe, though they're still not guaranteed a victory. Should they lose, they'll still leave a hell of a mark on whatever cavalry/monster they were fighting and such scars could prove pivotal to bringing them down with the rest of your army.

===Hunting Packs===
*'''Salamander Hunting Pack (DLC 1)''' - A ''much'' needed addition to the Lizardmen's borderline vacant missile unit roster, Salamander Hunting Packs are a fantastic general use ranged unit and are among the better missile cavalry options in the game. Though they can't fire while moving like other missile cavalry options, they deal a rather frightening amount of flaming explosive damage per volley with not inconsequential AP and rather notable anti-large bonuses to top it off. Much like your other non-single entity heavy hitters, Salamanders can do some damage in melee, but they really should avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Terrible defensive values will make Salamander Hunting Packs feel every blow that hits their unarmored hides. If you want to keep them in the fight, make sure you have a few Saurus Spears or Spear Cold One Riders to counter enemy cavalry. They can fire over units and obstacles.
**'''The Umbral Tide (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Sneaky salamander hunting packs with perfect vigour and stalk, the Umbral Tide is able to covertly cross a majority of the battlefields you may find yourself on and can easily set up an ambush against unsuspecting opponents. Even after running from one end of the battle to the other and loosing every last fireball from their collective gullets, the Umbral Tide will still have a spring to their step should they join the melee fray. If you can only afford a single Salamander Pack, try to budget for these guys.

*'''Razordon Hunting Pack (DLC 2)''' - Razordons are your anti-armor missile cavalry. Unlike the Salamanders, who burp up one flaming projectile apiece, Razordons lob three spikes at a time when they attack. Though the damage per individual projectile is... well, pitiful, combined they can deal a rather staggering amount of AP damage that can either be divided among dense clusters of armored infantry formations or a single armored target. Additionally, Razordons are much more adept at lobbing their shots, giving them a bit of an edge over Salamanders in uneven terrain. Unfortunately, that's about where the good news ends. With a shorter firing range than Salamanders and utterly abysmal base damage on their projectiles ([[What|Chameleon Skinks have stronger missiles against unarmored foes than these guys]]) and no additional bonuses to speak of (fire damage, explosive damage, anti-large/infantry, nothing), there's generally no reason to take Razordons over Salamanders in general lists. Against the heavily armored forces of the Warriors of Chaos, Dwarfs or even other Lizardmen, Razordons might find a more valuable niche.
::'''Warhammer III''' Not only have these guys gained a better firing arc, enabling them to better fire spikes at targets over terrain/allied units, but the projectiles themselves now pierce through multiple entities. Currently, they're particularly powerful and can quickly mulch armored infantry with as few as two or three volleys.
**'''Amaxon Barbs (RoR, DLC 2)''' - Razordons with poisonous spikes and a flat 15% missile resistance, these guys aren't much to write home about. Yes, poison is nice, but you don't exactly need to dig very deep for alternative ways to access it. The missile resistance is a nice, if moderately more situational perk, but it's not a particularly notable resistance and it does nothing for potential melee engagements. In the event you need a razordon hunting pack for anti-armor firepower, you may as well pick these guys up, but only if you have the extra gold once you've established your core army roster.

===Monsters===
The big beasts and the creatures most opponents expect to face when fighting the lizardmen. Potent and powerful monsters, you have a dinosaur for every occasion; you'll simply need to choose the right ones. Beware of enemy tarpits if you don't have a high-level mage in your army; dinosaurs will take additional damage from their flanks and rear if they are surrounded and that can quickly wear them down.

*'''Feral [[Bastilidon]]''' - Your cheapest single entity dinosaur as well as your sturdiest. Feral bastilidons are effectively just a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]] that you throw into enemy frontlines to stir up some chaos, cause some fear and just generally soak damage while the rest of your army dismantles the enemy. These guys can still earn you some crazy value against armies that field a lot of chaff infantry, like Skaven, Beastmen or Bretonnia.
::'''Campaign''': These guys are your entry-level monsters, being recruitable basically from the start of the game. As tanky anti-infantry monsters, these guys can net you some crazy value against the early-game armies of other factions for cheap-as-chips prices.

*'''Solar Engine Bastilidon''' - Your first, cheaper artillery option. Solar Engines fire off a single missile that simultaneously blinds and burns enemy units, reducing their combat effectiveness and dealing bonus damage against anything that regenerates health naturally. These laser bolts have a lower maximum range, are relatively slow moving and are much easier to dodge than the smaller, faster, harder to see bolts fired by the stegadon, but they have slightly higher damage per shot and a larger splash radius when targeting groups of infantry. In another contrast to the stegadon, the beams fired by the solar engine deal flat magical damage, meaning enemies with high magical resistance will largely shrug off the damage dealt by the solar engine itself. The only ''major'' drawback of the solar engine is that the Beam of Chotek, though an armor-piercing missile (its unit toolbar does not show the armor-piercing icon), deals relatively low bonus damage against armored units and as such will become less efficient compared to the stegadon when targeting heavily armored monsters over formations of armored infantry. At the end of the day, when all else fails, there's still a fully grown bastilidon underneath that laser crystal. Keep in mind, like every ranged unit, firing their missiles depletes their vigour and should be taken into account if you're planning on sending it into combat.
**'''Blessed Solar Engine Bastilidon''' - Perfect vigour's value cannot be overstated on a melee capable monster that would otherwise tire itself out just from holding a laser cannon in place. The greater defensive value of the bastilidon compliments the increased health quite nicely and will allow the blessed variant to stay in the thick of it considerably longer than others of its kind.

*'''Revivification Crystal Bastilidon''' - Your only non-magical source of healing, revivification crystals are one of the few healing options in the game that not only restores a unit's health but also actually revives dead models; a perk that's particularly valuable on your elite units like kroxigors or temple guard. A revivification crystal pairs excellently with a Life Slann in infantry heavy lists as you can very rapidly bring a unit back from the brink to near pristine (or whatever their healing cap is, depending on how used and abused they are), or for ensuring crucial monsters (like carnosaurs and dread saurians) become virtually unkillable. They are of limited use in a dinosaur army if your lord isn't a Life Slann, as their minor healing ability is short-ranged and can only target a single unit with a relatively lengthy cooldown between uses. Additionally, and this is a notable hitch, models don't start coming back to life until all the still living models have been fully healed up. This, consequently, makes it difficult to rebuild your forces if they're in active combat or taking damage from other sources. Having said that, they're still one of two sources of healing non-slann lords have access to and the only healing option that doesn't impose on your Winds of Magic reserve (which is still a plus, as other armies don't have such a luxury). As a bastilidon variant, it can also throw itself into combat with little fear. Pro tip: Don't click that "end battle" button; instead, use it to revive what you can and win the fight with fewer casualties.

*'''Ark of Sotek Bastilodon (DLC 1)''' - Functionally just a regular bastilidon, but with the ability to unleash an AoE burst of poison on all enemies surrounding it. As it's only a minor increase in cost over the feral version, the Ark of Sotek may be worth getting for the very minor amount of damage and extra poison it can apply to the invariable mosh pits bastilidons often find themselves in. Alternatively, you can get much more utility from the other two non-feral variants, and rely on your skinks to supply poison or your mages to deal burst damage to tarpits of infantry. In Campaign these boys are one of your mainstay units until tier 4 stegadons, with the lizardmens low growth and poor early-game economy the low-cost high reward of these guys can easily melt through tons of early game infantry, a must-get.

*'''Feral Stegadon''' - A wild stegadon, pure and simple. A living battering ram, stegadons are fantastic line breakers and are well rounded enough to survive the ensuing melee while dealing respectable damage in turn. Like all feral dinosaur variants, its only major weakness is a vulnerability to rampaging courtesy of its lower leadership. This is a forgivable flaw, considering how cheap they are and the fact that you can simply use Cold Blooded to snap them out of it definitely lessens the severity of an occasional rampage.

*'''[[Stegadon]]''' - A stegadon with a long-range ballista and skink handlers mounted upon its back. Stegadons serve as the second of your two artillery options and are arguably the best at dealing raw damage: the ballista is unerringly accurate and can easily snipe opposing artillery pieces, usually destroying the cannon/catapult models in question before they can get much usage. What's more is that, as it's connected to a single entity monster itself, the ballista is not vulnerable to these same tactics. Like Cygors or Steam Tanks, Stegadons compensate for the lack of firepower volume traditional artillery pieces can put out by retaining its long ranged assaults until it is either out of ammunition or has been killed. The stegadon's ranged attack generally struggles to deal significant damage to infantry formations due to the narrow projectiles and low splash damage (despite the bonus anti-infantry modifiers it gets). Regardless, the shot still deals incredible damage to heavily armored, single entity monsters (particularly a majority of mounted lords/heroes) due to their immense bonus AP damage. Even should you run out of ammunition or should your opponent try to tie it down in melee... it's still a stegadon. With skinks firing poisoned darts at everything surrounding its legs, it will put up just as much of a fight as its feral counterpart and then some. The only downside to the ballista is that firing it will drain the stegadon's vigour (even if it's standing perfectly still), meaning it'll likely perform less efficiently in any ensuing melee if it doesn't get a break between firing and fighting.
**'''Blessed Stegadon''' - Hoh boy, now we're talking. A massive buff to the stegadon's health will allow him to take significantly more punishment over the rest of his variants, but that's not really the main selling point here. The blessed stegadon is also gifted with perfect vigour; a massive boon to the offensive prowess of this beast. Being able to act as full blown artillery then rush into glorious melee combat to tear enemies a new asshole at peak performance is something no other faction can achieve remotely as effectively as these guys can. If a quest pops up in the campaign with these as a reward, you should do your damndest to accomplish it. They're well worth it.

*'''Ancient Stegadon''' - Where the stegadon does its best work from afar, the ancient stegadon needs to get up close and personal to do business. The howdah, though packed with significantly more ammo, is much shorter ranged and is primarily meant to soften up nearby targets for a follow up charge into melee. Ancient stegadons are somewhat tankier than other stegadon variants, though their limited range debatably renders them less effective offensively. In general, you should either spring for the Engine of the Gods or stick with a regular stegadon..
**'''The Thunderous One (RoR, DLC 1)''' - A beefed up ancient stegadon that calls down bolts of lighting every 20 seconds, the Thunderous One was made to wade into the enemy's front line and deal indiscriminate damage. Unfortunately, these bolts of lightning can and will deal friendly fire to your units. This can make it somewhat challenging to support its charge with infantry or cavalry, though allied single entity monsters typically won't mind the stray blast.

*'''Engine of the Gods Ancient Stegadon (DLC 1)''' - Is all the gold armor embedded into your ancient stegadon not quite flashy enough for you? Just give it the ability to call down an orbital bombardment to glass swarms of warmbloods in the name of the Great Plan. The Stegadon itself is, functionally, an Ancient Stegadon. It behaves identically like one and has the exact same statline, but once you get to its abilities, things start to get interesting. It has two supporting abilities, Arcane Configuration (Winds of Magic Power Recharge rate boost) and the Portent of Warding (a 5% Ward Save for all allied units within 40m). These effects make EotG Stegadons fantastic supporting units simply from their presence alone. And yes, this applies to EotG Stegadon Mounts, so your Skink Priests have access to their own personal WoM batteries. The third, and debatably the main reason you're considering this ornate beast, is the Burning Alignment active ability. Though limited to only two uses, the Engine of the Gods can deal devastating damage to infantry focused lists if the Burning Alignment is used at just the right moment. It's particularly effective when fired into choke points or along your enemy's frontline ranks when they're tied up with your forces. Thankfully, the Burning Alignment ability is extremely accurate for (what is functionally) a wind spell; so long as you aim carefully and don't wander your lizardmen into it's path, you can drop it right in front of your forces with little fear.

*'''Ancient Salamander (DLC 1)''' - A single giant salamander, tempered with age, experience and able to melt opponents with extra spicy hellfire. Ancient salamanders are more durable than their lesser hunting pack kin and are more reliably able to survive the occasional melee scuffle, though it generally shouldn't participate in it. Instead, the ancient salamander truly shines when paired with fire slann, salamander hunting packs, fireleech bolas terradons, or solar engine bastilidons thanks to its ability to render enemy units flammable with its own fireballs. This flammable effect greatly improves the damage dealt by flaming attacks and when executed properly and will burn through most infantry-focused armies with terrifying efficiency.

*'''Feral Carnosaur''' - An offensive machine, the apex predator of Lustria (you know, conventionally) and a signature monster of the lizardmen, the carnosaur is a ferocious beast that specializes in hunting other monsters, skaven weapon teams, and artillery due to their innate anti-large bonuses and armor-piercing capabilities. They're considerably frailer than stegadons and bastilidons defensively, though they are much swifter and tear through most enemies far more quickly due to their much higher attack. When funds are too tight to take a Saurus Scar-Vet or Old Blood on a carnosaur, a feral version with proper support won't steer you wrong. Just make sure you keep a leader or hero with Cold-Blooded on standby in case they get a little carried away.
**'''Blessed Feral Carnosaur''' - The blessed carnosaur. Formerly the pinnacle of lizardmen might (the dread saurian says hi), blessed carnosaurs have all the anti-large, armor-piercing wrath of the regular carnosaur supplemented by a much more rounded defensive statline. Additional health and magic resistance makes the blessed carnosaur surprisingly survivable against a myriad of generic threats and allows it to commit to fights that regular carnosaurs would hesitate towards. They are still just as vulnerable as any other carnosaur to getting mobbed or picked apart from regular armor-piercing weapons and absolutely will rampage in a bind, so don't get reckless with your charges.
**'''Geltblöm’s Terror (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Feral Carnosaur that never rampages and is blessed with both Vanguard deployment and the Strider ability, enabling it to keep up to speed in any terrain. Vanguard deployment and rampage immunity is a fantastic combination for a Lizardmen monster designed to fight other monsters, but don't get reckless.

*'''Feral Troglodon (DLC 3)''' - A Troglodon without a Skink Oracle to keep it in check. Troglodons are in essence a hybrid between an Ancient Salamander and Carnosaur in that they're able to burp up potent poisonous spit that's extremely effective against large targets. Troglodons are quite possibly the first real "skirmisher" single entity monster introduced: though they're quick for ground-bound dinosaurs, they should generally only engage in melee as a last resort or with ''heavy'' support because they are not designed to put up much of a fight. In a direct melee engagement against most other combat monsters, Troglodons tend to lose pretty handily. Their low leadership also tends to cause them to rampage quickly when caught up in a brawl. However, if they focus on kiting and sniping their targets rather than charging them, they can do frankly sickening amounts of damage.
**'''The Pale Death (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Feral Troglodon that can buff itself and nearby allies in melee whenever it uses it's Primeval Roar, giving them a rather substantial Melee Attack bonus for a short while. Though a buff of 24 Melee Attack is certainly an eyebrow raiser, it only recharges when the Pale Death is actively engaged in melee combat. For 60 seconds. On a creature that's prone to rampaging at the drop of a hat, this is a very risky commitment without a Lord/Hero nearby to keep it in check.

*'''Feral Dread Saurian (DLC 2)''' - The single largest monster in the game, dread saurians are nigh uncontested in raw damage output and are more than capable of killing every other unit in the game in a straight fight. Unfortunately for you, your opponent will be able to field ''far'' more units than your dread saurian will be able to deal with at once and most of said units will likely be picking it off at range. As a massive, lumbering behemoth, dodging even slow moving projectiles is well and truly beyond the dread saurian and it will take tremendous damage on the approach. Even once it arrives in melee, the sheer volume of bodies capable of surrounding it and poking it with anti-armor/anti-large sticks will wear it down quite quickly. Their size also provides another source of jank whenever they get bogged down by hordes; they'll struggle to properly path their way through the crowds (it doesn't help that the Dread Saurian also has relatively low mass considering it's literal size) and their attacks, while lethally brutal, also tend to miss depending on the terrain it's fighting on. They are also prohibitively expensive and will eat up a significant portion of your funds, meaning the rest of your army will be extremely limited in number. Ensure you have a proper supporting mage (a life slann is essential) if you're bringing one.

*'''Dread Saurian (DLC 2)''' - The single largest monster in the game, now wearing a howdah filled to the brim with skinks. A modest price bump from the already exorbitant feral variant will grant the regular dread saurian a higher leadership, ranged attacks and poison. There's little reason not to go ahead and splurge for these upgrades, feral or not the dread saurian will be the centerpiece of your army which you'll do everything to keep alive.
**'''Shredder of Lustria (RoR, DLC 2)''' - The single most expensive beast you could ever field, and boy does he do work. In addition to all that a dread saurian can bring to bear, the Shredder of Lustria is stacked with the full complement of veterinary stat buffs and a leadership debuff for all enemies surrounding it, a perk that, when combined with the innate fear and terror dread saurians cause, will make most enemy infantry run the ''fuck'' away very fast. If that weren't enough, the Shredder of Lustria also encourages all nearby allied troops, buffing their leadership. After all, who wouldn't be inspired by seeing the apex of lizardmen might devouring any and all who oppose the Great Plan? Speaking of the Great Plan, you're going to need one: considering how much money you're sinking into this puppy, you're going to need to really budget the rest of your army carefully.

*'''Coatl (DLC 3)''' - Previously a relic of a long lost bit of Lizardmen lore, the Coatl makes a rather striking return as the premier Lizardmen flying monster. The Coatl, though packing two casts of Urannon's Thunderbolt and one cast of Lesser Chain Lighting as bound spells, is designed more as a source of support for ground-bound allies. Infact, the main draw to the Coatl isn't its combat capabilities (which are mediocre at best), but for the fact that it grants all allied units under its wings Stalk. Yes, everything from that unit of Red-Crested Skinks to that Dread Saurian doomstack becomes invisible and untargetable until they're either far too close to do anything about or the Coatl "lands" or dies. As a faction desperately starved of long range missile units, this is a massive boon for protecting your high-value targets on the approach. Once the Coatl has safely delivered it's charges into battle, it still can serve as an excellent disruptor of backline units, Snipe artillery or single entity monsters with thunderbolt or punish a large blob with lesser chain lighting. Just be careful: even your Terradons move faster than this thing and its size does it no favors when trying to dodge missile fire.
**'''Spirit of Tepok (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Coatl that has Banishment and Shield of Thorns as bound spells instead. The option to lean more heavily into a support role does suit the Coatl quite well, though this largely depends on what lord choice and focus your army has. If you brought a life slann or a skink priest, a regular Coatl might get you more mileage.

==Tactics==
Lizardmen are a very versatile faction when viewed over the entire campaign, however there will be times when your army composition and thus tactics are limited depending on the progress you've made in developing your empire. Your greatest limiting factor will be money; be it in single-player or multiplayer, many mid-high tier units will cost a fortune and you will invariably have a lower unit count compared to other armies. You will need to carefully consider the faction you're currently facing when forming your armies.

===Multiplayer Strategies===
So, you want to show the world a Great Plan, and TED talks aren't getting it done? You might think of the Lizardmen as just another 'big monster' faction in multiplayer, but you're limiting yourself if you think that way. The scalies have a surprising amount of options within their roster. From super wide infantry builds to kite builds built around chameleon skinks, to more mobile cavalry-centric strategies, the Lizardmen can be quite a versatile opponent. The thing you're pretty much going to universally struggle against however is factions that are heavy on the ranged play. You need to think carefully about your army comp and lord choices, then bring the Great Plan to the four corners of the Earth (or multiplayer lobby, or whatever).
====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, along side their various strengths, weaknesses and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''': Highly mobile and capable of dishing out impressive damage, the Beastmen are among the fastest armies in the game (only rivaled by the Wood Elves and Slaanesh). This can be difficult to deal with, as the only infantry you possess that can potentially keep up with them are your Skinks. Skinks...generally aren't a great pick against Beastmen. They're slower still than a significant portion of the Beastmen roster and will die quite quickly due to their lack of armor and defensive stats. Skink Skirmishers/Chameleon Skinks are a minor exception, as between their poisonous missiles and the Beastmen's lack of armor, they'll actually deal respectable damage to them. Otherwise, the stalwart Saurus (Spears) will be your best frontline unit; solid charge defenses, shields and anti-large bonuses will stop any rush in its tracks and the Beastmen's complete lack of armor means that they'll take the full brunt of their attacks. Your monsters USED to be fantastic here, but with the addition of the anti-large regenerating Ghorgon, they are a much more risky proposition. Seriously, this thing will beat the pants off of pretty much any monster you bring to the table, and its surprising mobility means that your slow-moving infantry will have a hard time tarpitting it. Shredder of Lustria builds and monster mash builds which used to be hilariously effective against the Beastie Boys are now quite dangerous to bring. Without being able to overly rely on your monsters, it's going to be up to your characters and magic to be the game-changer.

*'''Bretonnia''': The end-all, be-all cavalry faction, Bretonia has access to some of the strongest mounted soldiers in the game. Their peasantry, though feeble, isn't to be underestimated in sufficient numbers and can still do notable damage through their archers and pikemen. That said, your Skink Cohorts can easily best any peasants they (effortlessly) pin down and a unit or two of Kroxigors will ''evicerate'' any foot soldier unfortunate enough to meet them in combat. Bretonnians will also struggle to hold their lines together from the sheer amount of fear/terror your monsters can cause. However, their cavalry (particularly Grail Knights) won't falter from fear alone and are renowned for their devastating charges. Brace units of Temple Guard (or Saurus Spears, if you're cheap) to mitigate their damage and box them in before they have a chance to pull back. A light slann with the Net of Amyntok can shut down Bretonian cavalry ''hard'' and should heavily be considered as your lord for this matchup.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Dark Elves''': The general battle plan here can best be summarized with "Grab a bunch of ranged and 2 Solar Engines and defend them at all costs because otherwise you have no way to deal with Dark Rider Crossbow and Scourgerunner spam." Seriously, those damn Anti Large missile chariots were pretty much designed to fight you. A pure melee monster rush isn't going to work otherwise you will just get kited into oblivion. Have the solar engines shoot them from afar a see if you can get you Chameleon skins to slow them down so your Cold One riders can catch up to them. Your dino cav is better than their dino cav, take advantage of that. Mazdamundi is also great for nets to lock down cavalry and get them ready for a pounding. If you can get rid of all that mobile ranged, the infantry fight should fall in your favor in no time.

*'''Dwarfs''': Dwarfs tend to form nigh impenetrable walls of armorclad infantry and are one of the few factions capable of holding the line better than you. AP weaponry is a must, so mixing Red-Crested Skinks among your Saurus can help chew through thicker formations. Kroxigors, particularly Sacred Kroxigors, will be your best infantry can openers in this fight. Despite their innate spell resistance, your offensive magics can still work wonders against most dwarfen infantry, so a heavens skink priest or fire slann wouldn't be amiss in your army here. Beware of their Giant Slayers; though fragile, they will deal terrible damage to any armored cavalry or monsters they can get their grubby dawi mitts on. Skink Skirmishers/Chameleon Skinks can easily outpace Slayer units and whittle them down with their poisoned missiles, though they'll do absolutely nothing against any of the armored infantry. Terradon riders are virtually untouchable to their ground bound forces with a special shout-out for the Fireleech Bolas variant, but you'll absolutely need to take down any Gyrocopters contesting the skies if you want to get your money's worth. Lastly, you'll want to destroy any artillery they bring before turning your attention to the rest of their forces; Ripperdactyls can easily flank and shred such devices, though you'll need to draw away any screening units if you want them to survive the aftermath. Lastly, this is one of the few matchups where Razordons are a more attractive mid-ranged option than your Salamanders.

*'''Empire''': Karl Franz brings a relatively balanced roster to the table, with plenty of long ranged anti-armor firepower and cavalry that'll run circles around yours. With the sheer volume of AP [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] units and artillery, this is a faction you'll generally want to leave the Saurus at home for. Skink Cohorts with shields are for once a rather reliable pick for your frontline, with Red-Crested Skinks and/or Kroxigors diving in once you've tied down the missile units that otherwise threaten them. Additionally, your Terradon Riders can actually be quite effective in this matchup, particularly in shutting down Grenade Launcher Outriders. A Skink Priest of Heavens with Urannon's Thunderbolt and/or Comet of Cassandora is a rather cost-efficient answer to units such as the Steam Tank and Artillery Platforms, though regular Stegadons can punch holes through them if you can keep them safe. A Slann Priest with Light Magic and the Net of Amyntok coupled with a squad or two of Salamander Hunting Packs makes for an excellent cavalry deleting squad, but you'll absolutely need to shield them with your own cavalry or at the very least some shielded Saurus Spears.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Go fast and hard into cathay's lines. Cathay brings a good amount of options against single-entity units with accurate Grand Cannons and Iron Hail Gunners amongst others. The largest you should go is an Ark of Sotek or two to mass-poison damage Cathay's entire packed formation. Go full offensive with Saurus and try to briefly contest the skies to disrupt the artillery and missiles on the charge. In general it's a poor matchup as while the other 'monster race' in the Ogres is great against Cathay it's simply a matter of price. Ogres can beat Cathay with a lot cheaper units than you can bring with Kroxigors filling the same role as Ogre bulls but 2.5 times the price. Unless your units get major discounts in multiplayer for Immortal Empires it's not a good time

*'''Greenskins''': Hordes of expendable Goblins and Ork Boyz make up the rank and file of the Greenskins. Despite having a particular focus towards mobbing you in melee combat, the Greenskins have a fairly diverse roster capable of performing decently well at ranged combat or skirmishing with their relatively diverse cavalry options. As the coup-de-grace, Greenskins also have access to several monstrous units between their selection of Trolls and Arachnarok Spiders that can mulch their weight in infantry. However, there are two major weaknesses to the Greenskin roster: they typically have ''terrible'' leadership (especially their expendable Goblin and Troll units) and a majority of their roster is unarmored. Saurus units will typically stand firm on the front lines while your Skink Skirmishers will actually do some solid work while easily outpacing the sluggish Ork Boyz, but you will ''need'' to watch out for their Cavalry. Fireleech Bolas Terradons and Salamanders will have a field day against their infantry as well, especially against the fire-weak troll units who will crumble rapidly in the face of their flammability and terrible leadership. On the note of leadership; your pantheon of Jurassic beasties will have the time of their lives against the Greenskins. Their lack of charge defense, anti-large, and low leadership means that a Carnosaur or two will bowl through their ranks largely uncontested. However, keep an eye out for Black Orcs; they're one of the few armored infantry units in the Ork roster, are armor piercing and are immune to Fear/Terror. Red-Crested Skinks are a decent budget option to deal with them, though you may prefer to kite them with Razordon Hunting Packs instead.

*'''High Elves''': Lizardmen will have some trouble countering High Elf flying monsters, particularly Phoenixes. Your ranged units aren't going to get the chance to take them down in the air, so you have to rely on catching them when they drop down to attack and that can be tricky if you're running an all-dino army. At the same time, if you're using Saurus then you will take some heavy losses from archers and cavalry if you commit them all to tarpitting the Phoenix. Chameleon Skinks are an excellent pick against archer heavy builds; their lose formation coupled with their innate missile resistance will make them extremely hard to take down at range while their chameleon skin will let them dip in and out of combat with relative ease. Sisters of Averlorn are a priority target if present on the field; a Skink Priest of Beasts may be considered if only to summon Manticores to tie them down. Additionally, the Legion of Chaqua should strongly be considered as a core part of your frontline; the ability to grant multiple units around it a 44% missile resistance is too valuable to ignore.

*'''Khorne''': Don't bring Skinks to this matchup. Barring Chameleon Skinks, Skink Skirmishers if you want to be cheap, all of your Skink Infantry will do little more than feed their skulls to Khorne's throne before they get an opportunity to do anything meaningful. A pricy Saurus front line is definitely worth it here, potentially supported by Kroxigors. For once the 'Engine of the Gods' Stegadon's death-beam will actually be useful as the Stegadon itself can knock about units and the death-beam being magic and AP will counter any infantry Khorne can bring. Bring Saurus, bring magic and your anti-large Carnosaur. A very good matchup in your favor.

*'''Kislev''': Kislev is a relatively fearless foe for you, a nice change of pace for mere mortal men. Their higher tier infantry is generally able to out-trade yours, Tzar Guard (especially the Great Weapon variety) can and will gradually carve their way through regular Saurus lines while Streltsi and Ice Guard will prove quite competent at dealing with your forces at range. Fortunately, your sheer versatility means you aren't wanting for options. Even if they're a bit slower, your Cavalry will generally outclass Kislev's, barring any War Bear Riders they may have brought. Even regular Cold One Riders will make a fantastic hammer to the anvil that is your Saurus and even a losing matchup against their stronger Tzar Guard will quickly turn in your favor with a rear charge or two. Of course, aside their War Bear Riders, Kislev's monsters can't hold a candle to yours. Once you shut down some of the ranged AP Missiles, your dinos can wreak terrible havoc upon the enemy lines. Razordons are particularly effective right now, though Salamanders can be used to efficiently deal with the more monstrous enemy units. Terradons are almost always a never-pick however as since in essence every single Kislev unit has a ranged attack that is more than capable of dealing with them Terradons are free kills for even Kossars.

*'''Lizardmen''': This...should be a no brainer in concept, though countering opposing Lizardmen can be somewhat difficult to execute. Anti-large units in some shape or form are an inarguable must; Cold One Spear-Riders accompanied by Saurus Spears can surround and pin down enemy monsters in a relatively cost-effective manner. Red Crested Skinks are an ideal infantry choice due to their poison and armor piercing bonus coming into play against a majority of the Lizardmen roster. Salamander Hunting Packs and Ancient Salamanders are fantastic all-rounders that can deal terrifying damage across the entire board. Your main objective should be to focus down any Slann Mage-Priest or Skink Priests present on the field, followed by any other lord/hero keeping potential rampages in check. If there is an opposing Slann, avoid clumping up your infantry to reduce the threat of a Banishment and/or any other vortex spell devastating your frontlines. Regular Stegadons are fantastic monster snipers who should focus fire on major threats like Carnosaurs or Dread Saurians before anything else.

*'''Norsca''': These guys are pretty much Warriors of Chaos with a little bit of [[Space Wolf|wolf]] thrown in. Like the Warriors of Chaos, they have a relative lack of missile units but unlike the Warriors of Chaos, are considerably less armored as a whole. However, they more than make up for it with their mobility and plentiful sources of anti-large, which can be seriously dangerous for one of your central strategies. Saurus Warriors as such are substantially better at holding off the bulk of their front lines while Temple Guard are a fantastic answer to their Skin Wolves and Trolls. You need to be on top of your positioning however, as Skin Wolves and Ice Wolves can run circles around your plodding infantry. Skink Skirmishers are also fantastic for dealing chip damage and applying poison while staying well out of arm's reach for a majority of their forces. (Ancient) Salamanders are also a superb choice, as are Fireleech Bolas Terradons as general damage dealers. Stegadons and Carnosaurs will likely be your go-to monsters, as a pair of Carnosaurs can typically take down a War Mammoth, at least in theory. Caution should be exercised against War Mammoths in particular, as they are one of the best monster units in the game. Considering the fact that half your list is made of monsters, that's saying something. No Norscan worth his salt will allow you to freely target down the crown jewel of his army, so make sure you commit well and truly to the fight.

*'''Nurgle''': Nurgle has no anti-large, bad armour piercing, relies on outlasting his enemies, has almost no ranged firepower worth mentioning, has incredibly poor armour, is ridiculously slow, hates fire damage, and is mediocre in the air-game. Basically, everything Nurgle hates is something you have plenty of while Nurgle has precisely zero counters to your playstyle. You almost can't lose this match-up it's so one-sided.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': This is a fairly balanced matchup depending on what you bring. Saurus Spears are the obvious pick here and try to avoid Skink units entirely unless you want to give the Gorgers free food. Carnosaurs with their anti-large are an obvious pick here and going for a Stegadon with or without a hero on the back is great for counterplay against Leadbelchers. The scariest thing Ogres can bring are Rhinoxes or their artillery. Essentially settle in for a large-on-large slugfest.

*'''Skaven''': An iconic matchup, the Skaven are everything the Lizardmen aren't. Massive hordes of cheap, cowardly cannon fodder will fill the ranks of many Skaven lists purely to get in the way of your Jurassic might and their rickety engines of war. Aside delaying the inevitable through piles of bodies, the ratmen have precious little in the way of durable front line units and will typically fall apart when thrown in the grinder. Rather, Skaven will rely on their wide array of artillery and arcane firearms to rain warpfire upon the hapless masses (friend and foe alike). Ratling Gunners are notorious for their ability to rapidly shred infantry, cavalry and monsters alike while their jezzails excel at picking apart single entity monsters, lords and heroes from halfway across the battlefield. Any frontline infantry you have you'll want shielded. In general, Skaven are modestly quick on their feet, so you'll want a selection of cavalry or skinks to catch up to and tie down their missile infantry. Chameleon Skinks are generally a strong pick against skaven due to their missile resistance and for once can do respectable damage due to the relative lack of armor in the Skaven roster. Skink Cohorts will typically win in a straight fight against Skaven Slaves or Clanrats, though against anything more elite you'll want Saurus or Kroxigors to deal with them. Your monsters will also have virtually free reign should they manage to make it into melee, though you'll want to ensure any artillery or missile infantry are well and truly tied down before you let them loose.

*'''Slaanesh''': Much like the Dark Elves, this matchup falls considerably in their favor. Speedy infantry, cavalry and chariots ''all'' packing AP damage makes a front line of Saurus undesirable. However, unlike the Dark Elves, Slaanesh [[/d/|comes]] up short in the ranged game; your Chameleon Skinks, Skink Skirmishers and even both Terradon Riders will prove quite valuable at whittling away Slaaneshi daemons, though exquisite care will be needed for your Skink infantry; even with poison debuffs, Slaaneshi units are ''damn'' fast and will still be able to chase down and tie up your Skinks without screening support. Other options include your trademark dinosaurs; despite packing AP damage, Slaanesh is not generally kitted with a diverse Anti-Large roster and may struggle trying to hold back your high-mass monsters from tearing through their ranks. When it comes to your Terradons, take a care. Slaanesh will usually pack some Furies to help defend the skies and though Furies won't win against any of your other monsters, your Terradons aren't most other monsters.

*'''Tomb Kings''': There's not a lot a basic skeleton army can do to the Lizardmen. Unit for unit, Saurus are just better and Skinks will be more maneuverable. An all-dino army can destroy Ushabti and higher-tier units with ease, provided you've picked the right dinos (Stegadons). However, this is not a reason to be complacent - the Tomb Kings roster has some very deadly Anti-Large AP units on their roster that will make very short work of your dinos. Of particular note are the Ushabti Greatbows and Necrosphinx; the former are dedicated monster snipers and the latter is absolute murder against other single-entity monsters. Try to mob these units with your infantry or try to make them irrelevant with magic, because the high innate armor and mass these units naturally have will mean they can and will be able to move around the battlefield with impunity.

*'''Tzeentch''': The key against Tzeentch is to get into melee quick and hold their units in place; Tzeentch daemons, even with their Protoss-like shields, aren't built for combat and will either try to do all their work at range (something you ''desperately'' will not want to combat them at) or by cycle charging before you get a chance to crack their shields. This is one of the rare matchups your Cold One Riders can actually excel at; they're rather decent in combat and can engage the enemy far sooner than your standard Saurus or Skinks can (and will likely/hopefully suffer less casualties for it). Additionally, Chameleon Stalkers can safely sneak up to vulnerable flanks; open up with a rather explosive burst of their own and start chewing through Horrors before they get much opportunity to return fire. Try not to contest the skies if you can, though Ripperdactyls will likely best most of the units they'd be fighting in the skies... they'll be outnumbered substantially ''and'' move much more slowly. They'll be lit up far before they can ever catch up to anything.

*'''Vampire Coast''': In terms of punching through these undeads' lines they're even easier than their Vampire Counts brothers with very little in the way of durable infantry to hold back your Saurus killing machines. Where you will have to watch out is their ranged units - they have one of the cheapest gunlines in the game and it's even harder to break open their protectors because they're all undead and can't run. Their monsters will tarpit your dinos but rarely kill them, but without proper maneuvering you will be munching on polearm zombies all day while their undead musketeers and cannons fuck you up. Abuse magic hard and don't let them bog down your dinos, keep them constantly rolling through the zombies until you can trample over their gunners. Be very wary about Necrofex Colossi, not only can they kite your dinos but they can also put substantial hurt on them if not checked quickly.

*'''Vampire Counts''': If there's any faction in the game more stunted in the range-game, it's the Vampire Counts. Hordes upon hordes of meat-shields often form the rank and file of many undead lists while the lords and heroes do all the heavy lifting. You'll want to avoid clumping your units up or getting bogged down by the fodder, as a single Winds of Death can delete your entire frontline if you allow it. Kroxigors will make short work of any infantry the Vampire Counts send your way and Sacred Kroxigors in particular are extremely valuable against the ethereal units that might otherwise threaten your physical forces. Additionally, Skink Skirmishers will prove a frustrating thorn in your opponents side as they kite any non-cav across the field and back. Typically you'll want to focus on bringing down any characters the Vampire Counts field, as they quite literally hold the army together. Without their leadership and magic support, many of the undead will quickly crumble against the might of your superior soldiers. Fire damage is particularly useful in this regard, so Salamander Hunting Packs, Ancient Salamanders, Solar Engines and Fire Slann can quickly incinerate many of these lords and heroes (in the case of the Slann, they are also fantastic at dealing with ethereal heroes).

*'''Daemons of Chaos''': Expect to see a roster comprising mostly of Slaanesh and Tzeentch daemons. If this is the case, you're in for a rough one. If your opponent decided to focus on Khorne or Nurgle forces... well, hopefully you enjoy the borderline free win. Regardless, this can be a tricky matchup to properly plan for, so just try to take a balanced list. With a slight focus against Tzeentch/Slaanesh, of course.

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction almost devoid of ranged options, the Warriors of Chaos is almost dedicated to advancing a wall of steel and meat from one end of the map to the other. Many of their units are armored and/or shielded and as such, armor-piercing units will be your friend against them. Take a few units of Saurus (Spears) to hold their units in place while you have some Red-Crested Skinks chip away at them. Spears are strongly suggested due to the relative abundance of large/monstrous units within their roster; they might not win against them, but your spears will go down fighting much harder than your regular warriors would. Take a unit or two of Ripperdactyls to shut down any Hellcannons they might've brought to the table. Take no half-measures with them either; they're unbreakable so you ''will'' need to completely wipe them out if you don't want to be bombarded the entire match. Otherwise, some (Sacred) Kroxigors, Razordons and Stegadons are fantastic damage dealers and a Skink Priest of Heavens or a Fire Slann can delete large chunks of their infantry at a time with proper placement and timing.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are a flighty foe and one of the hardest for your army to actually pin down. Their relatively cheap access to long-ranged anti-armor missile infantry will pose a massive pain in the ass and their basic frontline infantry, the Eternal Guard, can hold their own surprisingly well against your monsters, courtesy of their spears. In a rare twist, a front line of Skink Cohorts will prove more effective than your Saurus against Wood Elves; they're quicker still than many elven infantry options and can further hinder their combat effectiveness thanks to their poison. Chameleon Skinks will prove invaluable at harassing enemy archers and can kite a majority of their infantry with relative ease. Now when it comes to dealing with their tree units, I have one word for you. Fire. (Ancient) Salamanders can deal with Dryads, Tree Kin and Treemen with laughable ease and will prove just as effective at dealing with the rest of the Wood Elf roster, though you'll absolutely want a contingent or two of Saurus Spears to screen against Wild Riders. Wood Elves are also a rare instance of being a faction with ''less'' artillery than you (hint, they have none). Solar Engine bastilidons can heavily discourage their archers from setting up and will do bonus damage to any tree units they shoot. Lastly, many Wood Elf units are capable of vanguard deployment; keep an eye on your surroundings once the battle starts to ensure you aren't caught unawares.

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''S/S-'''

Though you aren't the undisputed king of Domination, Lizardmen are absolutely positioned as one of the top factions for this game mode currently. A very flexible faction with many options, you have excellent early game presence in the form of skinks. Your quick-footed infantry chaff will easily contest objectives due to their higher capture weight compared to the expendable chaff infantry other factions might field and will have a much easier time getting to them shortly after the game begins. Particularly any of the skirmishing variety that you vanguard deployed. Speaking of, Chameleon Stalkers/Skinks are still excellent skirmishers and harassers who can dive in and disrupt outlying forces, making objective contesting a painful nuisance for ill-equipped foes. When it comes to holding the line, your Saurus infantry is as durable as ever. When supported by regular Skinks, it will take a concentrated effort if not a full hard counter in order to shift your forces off of an objective. This is made even more challenging due to your rather plentiful healing options; Life Slann, Skink Oracles and even Revivification Bastilidons are fantastic for keeping your forces in the fight. Even more so if further supported by any Slann's Ward save nope-bubble that they can plant down on any objective to thoroughly lock it down. This isn't even really getting into your single entity beat-sticks; Kroq-Gar can prove the equal of lords such as Be'lakor with the right support and Lord Kroak can still Deliverance of Itza hard enough to evaporate enemy blobs with frightening ease.

At the end of the day, your sheer versatility affords you ''far'' more flexibility in dealing with the highly varied factions you'll be facing while still being able to focus on defending objectives. Yes, there are still some factions you'll generally struggle to deal with, but you will at least have a couple tools to handle them while you hold your ground. This is something some of the other factions (like the Dwarfs or Vampire Coast) cannot quite claim.

A particular note, if you're going up against one of the other top-tier factions in this game mode, such as Nurgle or Vampire Counts, bring fire. A Salamander Hunting Pack or two, a Fire Slann and ''maybe'' a Fireleech Bolas Terradon Rider can more efficiently stymie those factions regenerative strengths while further exploiting their innate flammability. A Burning Head or Firestorm will incinerate most of their blobs while dealing moderately little to your armored Saurus lines while Salamanders will also prove quite potent against the larger monsters/chariots supporting them.

===Campaign Strategies===
In the campaign, be it the Vortex or Mortal Empires, the biggest concern Lizardmen have is obtaining a consistent source of income; Skinks will only carry you so far in the early game and sacking settlements will only provide a quick short-term boost to your treasury. Your economy generally lacks bonuses, especially compared to other Warhammer 2 factions, though you won't be as constrained as, say, Wood Elves or Beastmen, and expanding the Geomantic Web and getting upkeep reduction skills will go a long, long way. As such, if you aren't playing as Hexoatl, it is imperative to get the city as soon as possible for its landmark, which reduces upkeep on the Lizardmen's most powerful units. Most other landmark buildings add some bonus to several unit chains, such as additional damage for Skinks or more defense for Saurus Warriors.

Lizardmen research is locked behind building completion; many important technologies cannot be accessed until a specific, often mediocre in mid-early game, building is built in one of your settlements. Generally speaking, it is better to unlock research to start improving your weaker units rather than focus on your economy in the early- to mid-game. You simply won't be generating much revenue from economy buildings until the Geomantic Web is expanded and upkeep is reduced. However, that also means you need to be smart about what buildings to construct in your limited settlements; depending on how much money you have coming in through battles and sacking, it may be worth it to construct something just to unlock research and then destroy it to make room for something you genuinely need.

Despite Skinks being largely cannon fodder after turn 75, the Skink Spawning Pool building should be built in every minor settlement so that you can hire as many Skink Chief heroes as possible. Not only are they the faction assassins, which help Lizardmen remove otherwise troublesome heroes that would be difficult to snipe on the battlefield, they can all get Stegadon or Ancient Stegadon mounts. These are functionally equivalent to the generic version but come with extended range and bonuses to damage. It is possible to have two full armies of just Skink Chiefs by the Chaos invasion, if you so wish, and it is even more OP than the standard dinostack. Skink Priests also have access to these mounts, but increasing their recruiting slots is much more difficult.

Once you start becoming established and have a few provinces under your belt, it is imperative to begin constructing Star Chambers in every province you can afford to do so. Each Star Chamber boosts the starting rank of all newly recruited Slann Mage-Priests by 3 levels and all new heroes by 2. Yes, this stacks all the way up so that you can recruit max level Slann every 10 turns. Each Star Chamber also offers a small but lucrative bonus to all income for the whole Province, which helps to address your stone-age economy and extends enemy sieges by an extra 3 turns, potentially granting you just enough time to save the city should it fall under attack.

===Mortal Empires/Vortex===
With the advent of Immortal Empires in the third game, this will admittedly feel like a lackluster experience compared to it. Having said that, if you feel like sticking to the "OG" experience or don't quite want to pick up game III yet, here are some tips and tricks. In general, if you're starting as one of the factions starting on your home turf of Lustria, you're going to feel quite cramped.

====Mazdamundi====
*'''City of the Sun''' - Big boss Mazdamundi starts with a couple nice things going for him; As the proud owner of Hexoatl, late game Dino-Doomstacks can become particularly affordable. Additionally, he can expand south relatively freely due to a province's worth of abandoned settlements ripe for the plundering/taking. Not everything is as bright as his city's namesake suggests; A permanent -10 diplomatic penalty to all Non-Lizardmen factions can make diplomacy somewhat problematic. This is exacerbated by the fact that Mazda starts directly south of the Dark Elves and has a cluster of aggressive Vampire Coast and lizard-hating Empire colonists barring his access to the rest of Lustria. After you secure your initial holdings, you should weigh your options carefully then commit to eradicating one threat at a time if you can help it. Wiping out Morathi's Dark Elves is the more challenging prospect; their abundance of Armor Piercing weaponry (melee and ranged) can make early game excursions north particularly brutal. This is made worse by the climate incompatibilities, where growth and replenishment are dramatically hindered. On the other hand, Morathi's capital city does provide some rather significant bonuses to your research, income and public order (reduction of penalties from corruption). Should you choose to go south, you'll have a much easier time and will be able to meet up with several other Lizardmen factions you can trade/confederate with.

====Kroq-Gar====
*'''The Last Defender''' - Starting in the ass-crack of the southeast, Kroq-Gar has a bit of a rough start. His only legendary lord neighbor, Tiktaq'to, is still a veritable hike through Vampire/Tomb King infested deserts and Skaven/Ork-filled mountains. You do have two other generic Lizardmen factions nearby, but they often get wiped out within the first 20 turns by either Vampires, Tomb Kings or Malus Darkblade, if you don't do the job for them. To get to the rest of your Lizard brethren (who actually matter), you're going to have to carve a path of bloody carnage across the literal length of the map. There are a couple of ways to go about it, however. If you focus your efforts, you can shove off the coast above your capital city and take the Dragon Isles province directly to the north. If you head north quickly, you can snag a veritable batch of handy Legendary Lord traits that'll turn Kroq-Gar into a particularly potent duelist and secure a number of relatively isolated, defendable provinces before you press westward. If you'd rather focus on pressing west initially... prepare for the long haul. You'll want to keep a banner army stationed either in Charnel Valley (where Clan Mors starts) or in Devil's Backbone (where the Court of Lybaras starts) to help defend against Ork or potential Dark Elf incursions.

====Tehenhauin====
*'''Lllllet's get ready to RUMBLE!''' - Brace yourself, you're deep in the Lustria-Bowl. Tehenhauin has the roughest start of all your lords, even including Horde-faction Nakai; though he has one potential ally to his immediate south, he has Vampire Coast, Dark Elves, Skaven and expansionist Empire folk surrounding him on all sides. Worse, you're effectively stuck with Skinks for infantry until you can make progress on your Skaven genocide quest. To this end, you're going to want to either focus on pumping out a flood of Skinks or focus on building your Beast Lairs to try to pump out some monstrous units to compensate for your lack of early-game muscle. Taking out the Vampire Coast first is strongly recommended, as not only do they spread vampiric corruption, but all of their settlements will provide you with valuable ports. From there, you can put the screws to the Dark Elves and Skaven to the south and claim some valuable land and sacrifices for Sotek.

====Tiktaq'to====
* Perhaps the most... bland campaign, Tiktaq'to just kind of exists in the middle of the Southlands, caught between some Tomb Kings, a random Empire faction and a fair few crusading Bretonnians. If you want, you can focus on allying with the Tomb Kings initially. They can provide a reasonable source of Trade income and provide a buffer against the burgeoning Greenskin-tide while you clean up the Bretonnians and Empire. Additionally, if you focus on sweeping east, you can get a solid point of entry into Lustria.

====Gor-Rok====
*'''The world is your Itza''' - Despite being solidly in the Lustria-Bowl and being a Saurus-dedicated, exclusive footlord, Gor-Rok is basically guaranteed supremacy due to beginning the game with Lord Kroak ''and'' starting with Itza as his capitol. Tehenhauin will often end up confederating with you pretty early and without much fuss due to the various Lustria-Bowl contenders beating the piss out of him. You'll likely want to focus your initial expansion down south to clear out the Skaven and secure the various resources found on the southeast coastline before pushing north to clear out the Vampires. Once you control the majority of Lustria, you effectively have free reign to set your sights anywhere you feel like conquering.

====Nakai====
* Formerly the most wayward of the Children of the Old Ones, Nakai's start in Albion effectively tries to throw you against the forces of Norsca for a majority of your early-mid game. After some research, he's admittedly geared for it; natural Snow and Chaos Attrition immunity courtesy of your unique tech tree grants Nakai a lot more flexibility for engaging the northern Chaos factions and despite not controlling any of the settlements he captures, the Defenders of the Great Plan generate a ''ton'' of Untainted corruption. Though this won't really benefit you personally much, your allies (or fellow players on Co-Op campaigns) will find traversing the north considerably less threatening. Having said that, due to being a Horde faction, you're perfectly free to just abandon Albion entirely and find new stomping grounds to start your Campaign in.
In Immortal Empires he's even more lost, starting in fucking Cathay. But he does get a proper Stegadon as a starting unit so that's a big bonus

====Oxyotl====
*'''Deep in enemy territory''' - Aside Nakai and ''potentially'' Tehenhauin, Oxyotl has the most unique (and arguably best) Campaign. His initial start is a bit rough, being awkwardly sandwiched in the far north between the rapidly confederating Dark Elves to the west and the pugnacious Norscans to the east. Though his universal climate habitability is a (necessary) godsend, he'll find it somewhat difficult to defend and expand his home territory. If you can, try to focus down the Dark Elves once you secure your home province. Oxyotl's particular playstyle actually counters Dark Elves to a degree and if you can nip Malekith in the bud before he confederates the rest of his misbegotten kind, you can spare yourself a late-game headache and get a hell of an infrastructure set up with all the unique building chains found in Naggarond. Just make sure you keep a couple standing armies in the region for the Chaos Invasion.
*'''Don't neglect your missions''' - This is because, unless you want to get constant debuffs, buff random enemy armies into the stratosphere or cause the Chaos Invasion to happen way ahead of schedule, Oxyotl's army is going to be consistently busy warping around the map doing missions rather than naturally expanding your home territory. He can warp back to the capitol and any one Silent Sanctum of your choosing freely (which you can establish in any settlement you've laid eyes upon at least once), but only once per turn and he does not regain any of the movement/actions spent prior to the warp. However, many of the missions Oxyotl needs to undertake often involves him razing or capturing enemy settlements, so you'll often find yourself with various holdouts sprinkled across the map. Just make sure that you get a banner army or two to defend your capitol if you can help it; things get ''extremely'' messy once the Chaos Invasion starts.
*'''Your Silent Sanctums''' - Your other unique mechanic is a game-changer for the Lizardmen. Functionally, they're similar to Skaven Undercities; you can construct unique buildings to benefit any of your forces within the Region it was established, as well as any other regions neighboring it. This can include granting your forces permanent vision on everything within those regions, a flat 20% upkeep reduction for all of your forces within the area or even a random chance to deal damage to enemy forces happening by. Whenever you amass 8 gems, you can construct a Silent Sanctum in any settlement any of your characters have personally seen. One key function truly unique to Oxyotl is that you can actually construct a building that allows Oxyotl's army to teleport there at will. You can literally teleport a full Stegadon doomstack right next to an enemy faction's capitol city if you so desire. Suffice to say, Silent Sanctums are extremely useful and worth investing in.
*'''Take Albion!''' - If you can afford the excursion, send Oxyotl or a generic banner army south to Albion and claim it. Several unique buildings in Konquata provide rather substantial financial boons and, especially when coupled with a specially kitted out Silent Sanctum, can serve as a rapid recruitment center for your efforts in the Old World. You're the only Lizardmen faction within a reasonable distance who can actually make use of these unique buildings and an early capture can prove to be a rather profitable investment for your economy.

===Immortal Empires===
It's here, the biggest Total War map to date, spanning effectively the entire Old World and then some (only a few less than fleshed out regions such as Nippon are excluded). The Lustriabowl has for the most part calmed down, a majority of the non-lizardmen factions have set sail for greener pastures and with the inclusion of the entire southern half of the continent, what factions that remain now have some breathing room. Having said that, this season, it's time for the Southlands Thunderdome to kick off! While Gor-Rok and Tehenhauin can breathe a sigh of relief, Kroq-Gar and Tiktaq'to are now sandwiched in with factions from damn near every walk of (un)life; Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Daemons of Khorne and Tzeentch, Dwarfs, Orks, Skaven, High Elves, Empire, Bretonnians, the list goes ON.

If you're playing as Gor-Rok, Tehenhauin or even Mazdamundi, don't get too comfortable in Lustria however. Dark Elves in the form of Rakarth have set up shop on the western coast of Lustria, Clan Pestilens has borderline free reign of the south-eastern coastline, Markus Wulfhart continues his colonial ways in northern Lustria alongside his new-found Bretonnian buddy Alberic. The Vampire Coast is, in fact, still infested with the Vampire Coast and a few rogue factions of daemons muck about in central Lustria. Though it won't be ''quite'' as chaotic as before, given the extra breathing room, you'll still need to remain vigilant if you want to kick all the warm-bloods out of your homeland.

One notable change is the Rite of Awakening; it no longer costs any gold to use, so once you unlock it, there's ''no'' reason to not immediately use it to spawn in a Slann for your recruitment pool. Enact that shit every single time it pops off cooldown.

====Kroq-Gar====
*'''Scar-Veteran Doomstack Simulator''': Kroq-Gar probably got the biggest buff/change transitioning from Mortal Empires to Immortal Empires among the Lizardmen. The first notable perk is that his faction has been ''heavily'' re-tooled to focus on Saurus; specifically Oldbloods and Scar-Veterans. Faction wide, Saurus Spawning pools now grant additional perks beyond the ability to recruit Saurus units and, at 4th tier, will grant an additional +2 recruit rank for Scar-Veterans. This stacks with both the Humble trait and Star Chambers (which now, unfortunately, can only be constructed in province capitals), letting you ''very'' quickly start cranking out high-ranking Scar-Veterans on Carnosaurs. If that weren't enough, all Scar-Veterans and Oldbloods gain a 30% boost to experience gain and get an extra 1% Weapon Strength per rank they have (capping out at a [[/d/|+50% weapon strength buff at max level]]). The Last Defenders did lose their universal -10% upkeep discounts, but it's slightly made up for since Oldbloods gain a -15% Upkeep reduction for their banner armies, encouraging you to run them as Lords for your more expensive doomstacks. Though by no means should you forsake taking a Slann here and there.

:Kroq-Gar himself downgraded some of his personal buffs, comparatively. Gone are the leadership and armor buffs for Stegadons, Bastiladons, Terradons and Carnosaurs. Instead, Saurus and Cold One Riders gain a 25% experience gain buff and his former -50% upkeep reduction for Saurus and Cold One units has simply dropped down to the fairly standard -15% universal upkeep reduction all his Oldblood units get. Much more versatile than before, though.

:Speaking of the scaly lizard, he starts on the eastern coast of the Southlands, smack dab above Teclis (for now). Teclis makes for a decent defensive ally if you so wish and a valuable buffer against the southern Chaos forces such as Kairos. Almost invariably, you're going to be forced upwards in your wars; smaller Skaven infest the Kingdom of Beasts province and Khalida is often prone to declaring war against you once you work your way north. Immediately following Khalida, you'll likely draw the ire of Clan Mors and be drawn straight into the Karak Eight-Peaks race, oddly enough.

:Should you sail northeast, you can evict Ku'gath from the Dragon Isles for a nice footstep into southern Grand Cathay and the Darklands. Anyone who's played enough of Mortal Empires might be so inspired for a fresh change of scenery.

:Heading directly west to meet up with your lizard brethren is also far more tenable, now that you don't need to fight your way through an entire desert's worth of Tomb Kings. You'll still need to secure your starting province, but as the Golden Tower now stands as a convenient mountain pass, you can meet and greet Tiktaq'to extremely early in the campaign. His starting region offers a nice launching point into your ancestral home, where you can ideally encounter Tehenhauin clinging to life on the bottom cape of Lustria. Should you wish to actually expand there for all the unique buildings and legendary lords ripe for confederation, you'll need to make sure you don't neglect your Southlands homelands.

====Mazdamundi====
*'''Immortal Empires''' - Probably the biggest change from TWWH2 is the expansion of Lustria and the separation of North and South <s>America</s> Lustria. Warhammer Mexico has been tweaked a little bit, with Skeggi and the coast being their own province. Skeggi is more challenging now since they can spam Marauder Champions, meaning you'll be tied up with them a bit more than before.
**Cylostra is now further north, next to Alith Anar, but you'll still have to deal with Rakarth, Wulfhart, Bordelaux, and of course, the Awakened. Most of these guys, and especially Rakarth, are packing lots of anti-Large, so you'll want to plan your armies ahead: Carnosaurs and Temple Guard can deal with Rakarth, but you'll want some artillery to deal with Wulfhart.
**North of Hexoatl is still the same clusterfuck, and you'll want to appease the Sisters of Twilight so that you're not dealing with a war on two fronts; their AI is stupidly annoying, and they will break non-aggression pacts with you if your relations hover even slightly above neutral. This anon recommends trading any settlements that you capture from Morathi to them in exchange for a fee, which can net you 7-8k in gold and some goodwill. Any settlement north of the Fallen Gates is useless to you anyway, and because Wood Elves have terrible settlement defense, as soon as Morathi takes them back, you can do it all over again and farm gold, allegiance, and positive relations.

====Tehenhauin====
The Cult of Sotek got a minor buff with the reworking of their sacrificial pyramid. Regiments of Renown now unlock normally, while sacrifices can be spent to acquire powerful Blessed units. In addition, the updated character UI makes swapping Tehenhauin's unique banners and ancillaries very convenient and a little more useful.

Tehenhauin starts in the southwest corner of Lustria and will need to move fast to prevent Rakarth and Lord Skrolk from getting too established. Generally, Skrolk will expand further and faster, taking most of southern Lustria from the minor faction to your east. Rakarth will have few targets for expansion and will declare war on you fairly early, whereas Skrolk will ignore you until he completes his conquest. However, Skrolk is likely to be easier to defeat early on and taking his territories will give Tehenhauin some safe territory to develop since Gor-Rok will be to your north and there's little to no chance the AI will cross the ocean from the Southlands. Then you can build up the resources you need to defeat Rakarth armies of darkshards and spearmen, which are far more difficult for Tehenhauin's early-game armies to deal with. Humble heroes and skink chiefs on stegadons can be very useful at that point.

Once these two threats are dealt with, it's up to you whether you'll finish off the remaining minor factions in Lustria (Spine of Sotek Dwarfs, Tower of Dusk, Bordeleaux Errants, Luthor Harkon) or ally with them to get some unit variety. If you head north, Markus Wulfhart still can't be negotiated with and you'll have to destroy him if you want to reach Hexoatl. You may find it more interesting to head east and reach <s>the Southlands</s> Mordor, where Tiktaqto and Kroq-gar should be clinging to life as the Vermintide bears down on them. But be wary; heading to the Southlands means you'll likely meet Kairos and will need to deal with Changing of the Ways if you don't finish him off. Luckily, his defeat trait is useful for Tehenhauin.

Alternatively, using the new sea lanes will bring you to Grand Cathay and Nakai the Wanderer. Most of the territory available will be yellow, whereas Lustrian and Southlands territories are green, but the areas of Cathay you can conquer/confederate will be almost completely secure from future attack as long as you maintain good relations with Zhao Ming and Meow Ying. Nakai tends to be fairly easy to confederate once you've gotten 3 or more armies, and while he's not a stellar legendary lord he is one of the best fighters available to the lizardmen.

Tehenhauin can meet Oxyotl very early in the campaign, however all of Oxyotl's territory will be red. It's probably better to leave him independent rather than confederate him, as the AI cheats will allow him to defeat all the Chaos factions in the Southern Chaos Wastes far more easily than the player can, and none of that territory is worth anything to the Cult of Sotek. Of course, this could all be a moot point considering how hard it is to confederate Lizardmen in general.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen

2023-06-20T18:32:10Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:B847:A566:44A9:279D: /* Immortal Empires */

{{Topquote|Sar Sotek!|Game battle chant for Lizardmen}}
This is the tactics page for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Lizardmen.

==Why play Lizardmen==
*You love the parts of Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs eat everyone.
*They're [[awesome|aztec dinosaurs riding dinosaurs]] into battle. Some of those dinosaurs also have magical lasers strapped to them.
*You want to be a master of the arcane, but you don't want to wear [[High Elves|foppish headgear]] or have a racial lifespan only in the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|double digits]].
*You'll have a nearly fearless army that's more likely to fight to the death before they turn tail and run.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMwpC70di2w Do you want to see what one of these does to your enemies?]

===Pros===
*'''A Multitude of Monsters''' - The Lizardmen have the largest diversity of massive monsters in the game at their disposal. Between the various Bastilidons, Stegadons and Carnosaurs you can field, you won't be wanting for big beasties.
*'''Intimidating Presence''' - Unsurprisingly, the average man will struggle to keep calm and collected when facing down a stampede of hungry carnivorous dinosaurs many times his size. Virtually every monster and cavalry unit in this army inspires fear and terror in the mortal hearts of men; a few well timed Carnosaur charges can break and rout forces not outright immune to psychology. Conversely, this also renders your monsters immune to fear/terror effects as well.
*'''Resilient Frontline''' - Saurus Warriors, even unshielded, are among the most durable baseline infantry units in the game. Though their damage output is rather low, their good armor and leadership will ensure they'll hold the line. Most non-AP grindfests will tend to work out in your favor on virtue of that alone. Of course this isn't even mentioning how tanky higher tier units like the Temple Guard or Kroxigors are.
*'''Mastery of Magic''' - With the notable exception of High Elves, Lizardmen have reliable access to more schools of magic than any other race. Slann and the mighty Lord Kroak offer not only some of the most reliable casting in the game, but have consistent access to the otherwise elusive Greater Arcane Conduit skill. Your skink priests are no push overs in magical matters either and are very cost effective options for when slann [[heresy|just aren't your thing]].
*'''Flexible Artillery''' - Where most other factions have to slowly wheel siege engines into place and are vulnerable to attacks in melee, Lizardmen give no fucks. Due to their Solar Engines and Ballistae being strapped on the backs of mighty Bastilidons/Stegadons, they can easily reposition themselves and hold their own in melee combat. Additionally, were the actual artillery models of other races can actually be destroyed, the Ballistae and Solar Engines will remain fully intact so long as the creature bearing it remains standing.
*'''Cavalcade of Cavalry''' - Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Terradons and Ripperdactyls, oh my! Though not as fast or as effective as some other faction's cavalry, you have a very diverse selection of fast-moving dinosaurs that can outflank enemies and flexibly adapt to the variety of terrain you may find yourself in. Just don't expect your cav to top any particular charts when compared against any faction that specializes in them.
*'''Predatory Senses''' - As your army consists heavily of predatory animals that excel at sniffing out prey, your enemies will be hard pressed to remain hidden from them. Enemies that rely on stealthy abilities like Stalk are revealed to you far more quickly than others, giving you far more time to react to (in battle) ambushes than other factions.
*'''Poison Aplenty''' - Many of the weapons wielded by your Skinks are poisonous, inhibiting the mobility/combat performance of enemies afflicted by their noxious attacks. Despite poison no longer dealing constant damage like on the tabletop, their debuffs are still useful for weakening the enemy for your frontline troops. Thank to the recent update that removes any form of poison debuffs that can apply to the player units through friendly fire, Skink's poison darts are even better.
*'''DLC Aplenty''' - You are tied with the Skaven for the honor of having the most DLC. You also have two FLC lords on top of all this, so between a grand total of 7 legendary lords and three DLC lord packs, you are the most supported main game faction in Total War: Warhammer II.
*'''Blessings of the Old Ones''' - Many of your units have "Blessed" variants available in casual multiplayer matches or the campaign. Blessed units are effectively pseudo-Regiments of Renown and every single one is given a buffed health pool and, where applicable, an increased model count per unit. Additionally, many of these blessed units receive additional passive abilities or upgraded stats to further their combat potential. What's better is, unlike Regiments of Renown, you can technically have as many blessed units as you want. The only downside (admittedly a big one) is that in order to acquire blessed units in the campaign, you must complete randomly generated quests that issue a set quantity of a random blessed unit upon completion. If you want an army of blessed Carnosaurs, you're going to have to earn it. This is a complete non-issue in causal multiplayer matches, where blessed units are freely available for a very minor upcharge in cost compared to regular variants. Blessed units are unavailable in competitive games.

===Cons===
*'''Slow''' - A majority of the Lizardmen list, namely Saurus infantry, take their sweet time to cross the field. Though there are exceptions to this, such as the various cavalry and Skink units available to you, this particular weakness is exacerbated by...
*'''Vulnerable to Range''' - ...their dearth of viable missile units. The only ranged infantry available to you are Skinks; particularly squishy infantry that, though nimble, have pitiful range and DPS against anything shielded and/or armored. Your more potent offensive options, namely Salamanders or Stegadons/Bastilodons, cannot fire while moving and are rather easy to tie down in melee. Defensively, though your Saurus are quite tanky and often come with shields, they are very vulnerable to being kited by ranged cavalry/infantry due to their rather slow movement speed. Additionally, all your units save for Gor-Rok are stuck with Bronze Shields (35% block chance), meaning that even when they're in a position to use them, you'll still be soaking a significant portion of the incoming shots all the same. The same can also be said about most of your monsters, with some minor exceptions.
*'''Limited Generic Character Usefulness''': This is a big one. Other than your magic characters (i.e. Slann and Skink Oracles which are pretty much good because they have magic), your other generic lords/heroes just don't stack up. When you compare them to the other factions' characters, they fall short in their respective roles, whether that's melee prowess, support utility, campaign map usefulness, you name it. Best to rely on your monstrous units and magic to fulfill their roles!
*'''Sub-par Air-Force''' - Though you have flyers, a luxury many other factions lack, they're among the weakest/slowest of them. Terradons, Ripperdactyls, and Coatls aren't ''bad'', per se, but they will lose if faced with the flying cavalry/monsters in their weight class from the likes of Bretonnia or High/Wood Elves.
*'''Expensive Roster''' - As you can imagine, breeding and training massive dinosaurs and mounting arcane instruments of war onto them isn't cheap. All of your high tier units can get crazy expensive both in initial cost and upkeep. Even the bog standard Saurus Warriors come at a premium compared to some other factions options, though this is only particularly notable in competitive multiplayer.
*'''Rampage''' - This was a much bigger problem in Game 2, where pretty much everything except for Skinks and Slaan would lose control and mindlessly charge the closest thing they could see. Game 3 has more or less restricted this issue to your feral monsters, letting your infantry keep their cool and do their jobs. That said, it's still a problem if your Carnosaur suddenly bolts into that nearby unit of halberds while your lords/heroes are otherwise occupied.
*'''Bland Campaign''' - Aside Oxyotl and ''possibly'' Tehenhauin, the Lizardmen have the most boring campaign mechanics of any of the game II races (including some of the game I ones). Their unique mechanic, the Geomantic Web, is a very passive and basic provincial buff that takes a lot of resources and time to properly build up to a level you'll actually notice the effects of and offer no benefit to provinces you don't ''completely'' control. Yes, losing that one minor settlement causes the provincial capital to shut off its Geomantic Pylon until you reclaim it. Additionally, without mod support, Lizardmen are among the most stubborn and oppositional to confederation. Fortunately, though it isn't a top priority for them, CA is aware that Lizardmen need their campaign mechanics updated to bring them up to modern standards. Hopefully that update comes soon.
*'''DLC Locked Content''' - Though a con for virtually every other faction in the game, this is a particularly notable one for Lizardmen. Many, if not most of the Lizardmen's better units are locked behind DLC lord packs. You'll need the Prophet and the Warlock for all units marked with DLC 1, the Hunter and the Beast for everything marked with DLC 2 and the Silence and the Fury for everything marked DLC 3.

==Universal Traits==
There are a couple of perks and abilities shared across a significant portion of the lizardmen unit roster, which will be mentioned here.
*'''Primal Instincts''' - A perk found on a majority of the Lizardmen roster (exempting Lords/Heroes and Skinks), primal instincts will cause a unit with this ability to rampage out of control should their health drop to 20% or less. This can be a bit of a mixed blessing, as the rampaging unit will receive a +15% Charge Bonus and a +8 Melee Attack bonus and continue to fight nearby opponents in situations that any other unit would turn tail and rout. The bad news is that your opponent has more control over the rampaging unit than you do; rampaging units will single-mindedly charge at the nearest enemy unit, which your opponent can take to his advantage by using faster infantry/cavalry to kite the rampaging unit while his ranged infantry/artillery finishes it off. Of course, this is also factoring in that by the time these bonuses kick in, your Saurus unit or Carnosaur is typically on its last legs and won't last much longer anyways. Should the rampage end ''before'' the unit dies, they'll usually begin to rout from the field and will often be too far out of position for you to properly recover them.
::'''Warhammer III''' buffs Primal Instincts for Saurus Units; no longer causing rampage (thank god) while triggering much sooner (Triggering at 50% health as opposed to TWWII's 20%). When active, it gives Saurus units a +15% Charge Bonus, +10 Melee Attack and +5% Physical Resist buffs that remain active indefinitely so long as the Primal Instinct threshold has been crossed. This applies even to Saurus cavalry and since you can actually ''control'' them when Primal Instincts pops now, you can be far more surgical when taking advantage of these buffs.

*'''Cold Blooded''' - A targetable ability found on most Lizardmen Lords and Heroes, Cold Blooded helps to counter the innate weakness in the Lizardmen faction; their tendency to rampage. When used, Cold Blooded will snap a single unit out of a rampage (if they are currently doing so) and will temporarily buff their leadership. This ability can be used pre/post rampage as well, as the leadership buff can potentially prevent a rampage from occurring or can help prevent a tattered unit from routing once their rampage expires. As this ability has a somewhat lengthy cooldown an is only found on Lords/Heroes, care should be taken on when it is used and what it is used on. It can also be used on units that were forced to rampage by an ability or spell from enemy units, providing a unique bit of counterplay against such tactics that other factions lack.

*'''Predatory Senses''' - An ability found on all non-Slann/Skink units in your roster, this allows your units to detect hidden or stealthed units far sooner and from farther away than other armies (around 160 meters). This also disregards any faction/unit/terrain modifiers that enhance stealth, with the only exception being the ''Unspottable'' trait. With proper coverage, this can make ambushing or outflanking your forces extremely challenging to do discreetly.

*'''Aquatic''' - An ability found on all Skink infantry, Kroxigors (though their stat card doesn't mention the trait, they still receive the Aquatic bonus) and your Salamander/Razordon hunting packs, this not only allows them to ignore the usual penalties for fighting in water-logged environments, but gives them a 20% bonus to melee attack/defense when they do so. Considering non-aquatic infantry suffers a 20% malus to those stats when slogging around in the water, this can become a rather substantial combat buff for a significant portion of your roster (keep your Saurus dry). Potentially losing matchups will suddenly swing into your favor and that's not even factoring in your abundant poisoned weaponry and robust catalog of supportive magics to widen that gap further. As amazing as all that sounds... marsh and shallow water environments are rather few and far in between. Additionally, for the maps that ''do'' have swamped areas, coercing your opponent to willingly splash around with you is a battle all its own, one you're not likely to succeed in without careful planning.

*'''Quick Learners''' - Another Skink-exclusive ability, this greatly increases the rate that your Skinks gain ranks. This helps distinguish Skinks against comparable chaff infantry since they'll benefit from rank-boosted stats much more quickly and, as such, makes them surprisingly effective early-mid game infantry. This perk also applies to units such as Terradon Riders due to having Skink Riders.

==Campaign Mechanics==
'''Geomantic Web''': Pretty much the only unique thing every Lizardmen faction (except Nakai) has, and it's a bit lackluster. Lizardmen have access to a special view of the global map that displays the Geomantic Web, with every region capital acting as a nexus point. Once you control an entire region, you can build up Geomantic Pylons in order to strengthen the Geomantic Web, which in turn offers gradually stronger perks (like an increasing percentage to building income, higher ranked recruitment, etc) the more you increase it. At the beginning of the game, these bonuses are quite small, but as you expand and enhance the Geomantic Web over the course of the campaign, these benefits can make a genuine impact on your economy.

There are a few problems with this mechanic, however. The first major one is that you receive ''no'' bonuses if you don't control the entire region. Obviously, this isn't a problem when you're surrounded by factions you were planning on killing off, but this becomes complicated if an ally suddenly captures that last settlement in a region before you could. If it was another Lizardmen faction, you could maybe play the long game and eventually confederate them, but otherwise you'd be forced to attack them in order to claim the region so that you can actually activate the Geomantic Web benefits. Warhammer III and mods have offered ways to purchase or trade settlements, but in many cases the AI tends to value each settlement they own far more than anything else you could offer them. This often leads to lengthy wars against what could've otherwise been a valuable trading partner and buffer against foreign elements that you'd otherwise have to deal with yourself. The second major problem with the Geomantic Web is that even if you build up a regional capitol to tier V and build the appropriate pylon, it does ''nothing'' without an adjacent region ''also'' having a tier V capitol and pylon. That's right, the strength of the Geomantic Web is reliant on multiple regions being entirely under your control and also having them fully built up. This can be a time and gold consuming process that forces the Lizardmen player to take it slow; Lizardmen economy tends to be on the low side of the spectrum, made worse by their fairly expensive unit roster and lengthy build/research timeframes. And of course, if an enemy army rolls in and claims one of your minor settlements, the Geomantic Web benefits for that entire region are shut off entirely, further stemming your growth rates. The third issue with the Geomantic Web; it's a very basic and uninteractive mechanic. Aside the baked in map-painter that is the (Im)Mortal Empires campaign, there's not much incentive or direction to build up the Geomantic Web besides using it to squeeze every last bit of gold or growth you can to boost your dismal economy.

'''Rites''': Much like most of the Warhammer II races, Lizardmen have access to special rites that, generally, grant them temporary buffs for the cost of some gold. While every faction has one or two unique rites, every Lizardmen faction has access to and must perform the ''Rite of Awakening'' in order to recruit new Slann lords. Fluffy.

'''Sacrifices to Sotek (Tehenhauin)''': Tehenhauin's unique focus, in addition to the Geomantic Web, is his crusade against all of Skaven kind. By gathering captives from battles, you can sacrifice them to Sotek to gain empire-wide boosts to growth or to recruit the Blessed variants of the Lizardmen roster.

'''Dedication to the Old Ones (Nakai)''': Nakai's main mechanic as a Horde faction. By capturing settlements and dedicating them to one of three Old Ones, Nakai can unlock faction-wide buffs to his hordes. He can also spend the accumulated Favor of the Old Ones to recruit Blessed Units or activate temporary buffs or bonuses for use in battle.

'''Visions of the Old Ones (Oxyotl)''': Oxyotl's special perk, Oxyotl can teleport across the entire Warhammer Fantasy world to specific targets once per turn in order to accomplish an issued mission for rewards. By completing these missions, he can be given several rewards (such as Blessed Spawnings, increased favor from fellow Lizardmen factions or temporary buffs for certain units), but the most prominent and consistent reward are special gems used to purchase Silent Sanctums. Silent Sanctums act much like Skaven Undercities in that they are built under any settlement across the map. Doing so gives Oxyotl vision of the province that settlement is located in (and can be upgraded to give him vision of all adjacent provinces as well) as well as two building slots that can give him anything from upkeep reduction to increased ammunition and missile damage. Additionally, one such sanctum can be upgraded to act as a teleport node, allowing Oxyotl's army to warp to that Silent Sanctum at any time (much like Oxyotl's capitol).

==Lords==
The scaly faces of the Lizardmen. With the exception of the Slann Mage-Priest, which outperforms even most Legendary Lords, the Lizardmen aren't exactly a character-centric faction. Their LL's are very pointy. Most of them are great on the battlefield (with either melee or magic prowess), but their army buffs vary in usefulness and their factionwide buffs are nearly non-existant, with only a couple lords like Kroq-Gar providing any whatsoever. It's very difficult to justify taking even Legendary Lords (let alone your generic lords, which are frankly terrible) over any flavor of slann mage-priest due to the sheer versatility the latter bring to your army, especially since you are not hurting for giant, single entity beatsticks to ram into enemy formations. Slann benefit from Star Chambers in campaign, others don't, no contest, only use Slann if stacking Star Chambers (which you really should).

===Legendary Lords===
*'''Mazdamundi''' - The last of the second generation Slann (lore-wise), Mazdamundi uses magic primarily from the Lore of Light to act as a hybrid support/offensive caster. The two main selling points of Mazdamundi over a generic Slann Mage-Priest are his Stegadon mount Zlaaq and his signature spell ''Ruination of Cities''. Zlaaq allows Mazdamundi to actually engage in melee, something no other Slann can safely do, and makes him substantially more durable against most forms of attack. ''Ruination of Cities'', especially when combined with ''Banishment'', makes Mazdamundi an excellent AoE caster capable of tearing infantry focused armies to shreds with ease without chewing through your Winds of Magic reserve. These spells are limited however, being bounded spells, so make sure you wait until the right moment to utilize them. Additionally, don't put too much faith in them; as their movement patterns are random, these spells (particularly Ruination of Cities) can just as easily do nothing or even devastate your own forces as they can your enemies if you aren't careful.
::'''Warhammer III''' brings a few buffs to his toolkit; the barrier mechanic normally reserved for Tzeentch armies is now also granted to all Slann as well, helping mitigate the first few attacks against him. Additionally, to better represent the almighty toad's arcane prowess, Mazdamundi receives a 50% increase in range to all spells he casts. This turns him into a sort of magical artillery engine, as he'll have virtually no issues slapping that Banishment or Comet of Cassandora cast pretty much wherever he damn well pleases.

*'''Kroq-Gar''' - Your dedicated duelist, Kroq-Gar is an offensive powerhouse that shines when seated atop Grimloq, his faithful Carnosaur mount. Though expensive, Kroq-Gar/Grimloq can engage virtually any enemy type in the game effectively and is able to duel against many enemy lords and come out on top. Though a monstrous force on his own merits, Kroq-Gar is something of a glass cannon however and as a larger target is prone to getting mobbed by multiple units or getting focused down by ranged infantry/artillery. Another notable shortcoming is that he provides limited support for the rest of your army (a bit of a problem for all Saurus Oldbloods), and as such is not recommended for dino-heavy army builds, his bonuses to armor and leadership being less important than the healing abilities of Life Slann.

*'''Tehenhauin (DLC 1)''' - Your only Skink-Priest lord choice, Tehenhauin is something of a niche pick. He can deal solid enough damage against footlords/cavalry lords in a fight (particularly if on a Ripperdactyl) and is also capable of dealing notable damage to swarms of infantry (with his Lore of Beasts and/or with his Engine of the Gods), but he's extremely frail for a Lizardmen lord when unmounted. Never get the Fanatic skill in his skill tree; it only benefits Skink units and they are pretty trash after the mid-game.

*'''Tiktaq'to (FLC)''' - Another somewhat niche pick, Tiktaq'to is a dedicated flyer who excels in lists built with Terradons, Ripperdactyls and Coatls as the focus. Though mounted on Zwuup, Tiktaq'to is your squishiest (Legendary) Lord and lacks the support/damage options available to the others, but he's inarguably the swiftest of the bunch (which doesn't mean much compared to other flying lords and heroes). Under no circumstances is he a direct combat lord; against any duelist or large/monstrous lord he will lose handily. The only targets he can safely engage are dedicated casters, artillery and dedicated ranged infantry. Because of this, playing him requires far more finesse than what is required for virtually every other lord; even against targets he ''can'' engage effectively, prolonged combat will invariably whittle him down and may the Old Ones help you if he's surrounded while grounded. Keep a squad or two of Ripperdactyls close by to make up the difference in combat ability and to take advantage of Tiktaq'to's buffs. Also, his unique Epic weapon doesn't work if he is attacking a ground target in melee because its attack bonuses are only in effect when flying, so he's weaker than a Skink Terradon Rider when attacking ground targets UNLESS you swap out his weapon. When used in campaign, much of his value comes from his rather insane and stackable upkeep discount for flyer units. Even on higher difficulties, it is extraordinarily easy to stack enough upkeep cost reductions to have a full Coatl doomstack damn near for free (until the Supply Lines penalties become particularly swollen, at least). Additionally, his unique rite gives all of his armies the ability to easily chase down fleeing armies or attack multiple settlements a turn which can be ''devastating'' to an enemy faction if used at the right moment.

*'''Nakai (DLC 2)''' - The largest and oldest of the Kroxigor Ancients, Nakai is an infantry mulcher who (thanks to his enthusiastic animations) will literally sweep his way through the thickest blobs of infantry. Nakai possesses a few notable traits over his competitors; his ability to grant perfect vigour to nearby allies ensures they're in peak form throughout the entire battle while his Miasma of Despair can cripple enemies within his presence; a potentially nasty combo that can ensure your forces slowly but steadily chew through enemy frontlines. Unfortunately, Nakai has a few major weaknesses: As a large entity, he's vulnerable to anti-large weaponry (which does abound among baseline infantry) and is an easy, defenseless target for ranged units to snipe. He also struggles to properly duel opposing heroes/lords due to his size and janky animations making him lunge about haphazardly while they continue to poke him to death. Because of this, he tends to work best as a force multiplier for infantry builds.

*'''Gor-Rok (FLC)''' - Where Kroq-Gar is the spear, Gor-Rok stands as the shield. Gor-Rok is a dedicated footlord, among the slowest of them, but makes up for it through sheer, unbreaking resilience. As the only unit in the entire Lizardmen roster with a silver shield (55% missile block chance), Gor-Rok is able to shoulder his way through the kind of firepower that would fell a lesser Old-Blood on the approach. Gor-Rok can also stand neck-deep among hordes of angry infantry and walk out seemingly unscathed. When equipped with the ''Mace of Ulumak'', Gor-Rok can also prove a competent duelist in his own right, even if it's only in temporary bursts. Gor-Rok does falter against mounted/monstrous heroes/lords and is vulnerable to duelists with good AP values, though the Twisted and the Twilight patch has helped address the issue of him being staggered to hell and back. Never the less, Gor-Rok is a relatively cost effective Legendary Lord who can and will hold the line until the bitter end. His campaign starts with Lord Kroak fully unlocked and active, which makes his campaign among the easiest in the entire game, even on higher difficulties.
**Gor-Rok's rite will be changed in Immortal Empires, giving his units Barrier and immunity to certain debuffs, like Poison. Unlike Tzeentch, his version of barrier probably won't be as game-breaking because of how slow Saurus and that they do their best stuck-in.

*'''Oxyotl (DLC 3) ''' - The legendary daemon-slaying chameleon skink of Oyxl is the last legendary lord for the faction (at least for TWW2). As to be expected from any shape or form of a Chameleon Skink, Oxyotl is a rather cheap, stealthy character hunter who behaves somewhat like a Wood Elf Waystalker. Unlike Waystalkers, Oxyotl has a particularly nasty trick in the form of Master Predator; a toggle-able skill that reduces his movement speed in exchange for an increase in range, Snipe and the ability to remain undetectable unless the enemy gets extremely close to his position. Combined with his modestly powerful armor piercing missiles, this can quickly wear down most armored lords and heroes rather quickly if left to his own devices. Of course, as a reasonably cost effective LL, the drawbacks have to come in somewhere and for Oxyotl, that drawback is melee combat. While he has acceptable melee attack and defense, Oxyotl has no armor or damage mitigation tools at his disposal. Any combat lord or hero worth his or her salt can and will kill him in a hand-to-hand duel. Fortunately, he's fast enough that virtually no footlord can catch up to him unless you willfully allow it. He also struggles to deal with the rank and file and lacks any notable support abilities for his own forces, but that's fairly typical of the niche Oxyotl fills.

===Generic Lords===
Your generic lords aren't amazing in campaign compared to other factions, but can really shine in competitive multiplayer. In the campaign, you'll generally never want to get non-slann lords after turn 20(ish) because lizardmen Star Chamber buildings give 3 bonus levels to your slann lords, meaning they quickly outpace any other lord available. Any need for a melee lord can be filled by one of the many lizardmen heroes, who can also be easily recruited at higher starting level than the melee lords. You may still find the need to recruit cheaper stand in lords in case of an emergency, as the Rite of Awakening's cooldown is a notable hitch in acquiring more slann.

*'''Slann Mage-Priest''' - Your almighty magic toads, slann are dedicated mages who don't participate in fights directly, but wreak havoc upon your enemies from afar with their magics or supplement your forces with defensive/healing energies. Slann are among the precious few generic lords in the game who have access to the ''Greater Arcane Conduit'' ability which, when combined with their reliable casting, can allow savvy players to call upon vast reserves of the Winds of Magic long after lesser mages have tapped out of theirs. In addition to ''Greater Arcane Conduit'', each slann has access to Banishment as a bound spell as well as the ''Shield of the Old Ones''; a large AoE defensive buff that applies a 22% damage resistance modifier to all allied units within it's bubble. Understandably, for all their arcane might, slann are practically helpless if caught in a fight. They are the single slowest unit in your entire army and are quite chunky, making them easy targets up close or at range. To this end, you'll almost always want a screening unit of Temple Guard (or at least shielded saurus) to keep enemies from ganking them. Outside of that, there are four varieties of Slann Mage-Priests, each dedicated to a specific lore of magic:
**'''Fire Slann''' - When you want to burn the [[HERESY|heretic]] in holy fire for the Old Ones. Combined with their bound Banishment, fire slann are capable of mulching clumps of infantry wholesale and can even churn out respectable single target damage with their Fireball and Piercing Bolts of Burning spells. Fire damage is particularly useful against the myriad of enemies with regeneration, and practically mandatory when facing undead crises in campaign. Being able to buff an entire line of saurus with an upcast Flaming Sword/Cloak of Flame can turn the game in your favor.
**'''Life Slann''' - These guys are the MVP in any monster heavy list; though you have a few other options for healing (such as the Revivification Bastilidon, high slann and the newly added Skink Oracle), life slann are still the uncontested kings at it. If you want an army built on the back of beasts, a life slann is essential to keeping them in the fight. With a life slann, you can wipe away any damage your stack of monsters take during the routing phase of a battle, making them both tactically and strategically important. Pair one with a Revivification Bastilidon to very rapidly resurrect slain models in any infantry unit and bring back even the most tattered units to full fighting strength. Additionally, should you encounter blobs of infantry that pose a notable danger to your larger beasties, Life slann are able to slap down Dwellers Below to deal frankly startling amounts of damage to practically every non-flying unit caught within its radius.
**'''Light Slann''' - Light slann are fantastic supports for an infantry-heavy army namely due to two spells: Net of Amyntok and Birona's Timewarp. Like every other army, Net of Amyntok is an excellent tool for pinning down faster cavalry from the likes of Bretonnia or the Dark Elves so that your ''much'' slower saurus can catch up and engage them in melee (or to keep them still while your Salamanders incinerate them wholesale). Birona's Timewarp can turn the tide in a key engagement when used properly. Offensively, being able to cast Banishment much more frequently can also deal devastating damage to enemy infantry. That said, even your Greater Arcane Conduit will struggle to keep you topped off; the Lore of Light can consume your Winds of Magic quite quickly.
**'''High Slann''' - Similarly to light slann, high slann are a hybrid offensive/support caster. Unlike the Lore of Light, you do have access to minor magical healing through Apotheosis and have access to an excellent anti-flier vortex spell in Tempest (Net of Amyntok is superior in most cases, however). High slann offensively specialize in single target damage and can deal devastating amounts of it between the Arcane Unforging and Soul Quench spells, giving them a solid niche against duelist lords/heroes and larger monsters.
**'''Heavens Slann''' - Multiplayer only, the Heavens Slann is unfortunately the worst slann of the bunch. It's not that the Heavens lore is lacking nor is it the slann himself, but the fact that he faces strict competition against your Skink Priests of all things. A Skink Priest of Heavens, though lacking the Greater Arcane Conduit, is a much faster/smaller target by default and has access to several mount options that make him much more flexible offensively or defensively. Additionally, as a hero, you can take a more offensively focused melee lord or a slann attuned to a different lore for more magical variety. Even if you're only running one with nothing but the crest on his skinky-head, the cheaper price alone makes the Heavens slann a hard sell comparatively.
:::'''Warhammer III''': All Slann become a bit more defensible with the boon of their own personal barriers, a ''much'' needed buff to these fat frog's personal defenses. Of course, barriers will do little to assuage prolonged and unsupported melee combat, but it will help protect them from the stray blast or occasional skirmish.
:::'''Immortal Empires''': A minor nerf to the Slann, Star Chambers can now only ever be constructed in Province capitals, ''severely'' curbing how quickly you can recruit high-level Slann right out the gate. They can still be abused, though you now need to capture ''many'' more territories before you can crank out Slann on par with their Mortal Empires power level. The good news is, the Rite of Awakening is now free to use once unlocked and can be spammed on cooldown to try farming for second/third generation Slann.

*'''Saurus Old-Blood''' - Offensive duelists through and through, saurus old-bloods are flexible masters of combat who can lead on foot, on the back of a cold one, or atop a mighty carnosaur (you'll usually want one on a carnosaur). Compared to the kroxigor ancient, saurus old-bloods are less powerful in melee combat but can be much faster and have marginally better faction support skills. For the purposes of both Multiplayer and Campaign, you'll want to avoid taking Old-Bloods as your lord (unless you have ''no'' DLC content). Their role can easily be filled by Saurus Scar Veterans, who ''don't'' take up your only Lord slot for the army (and are, for all intents and purposes, identical sans Campaign skill trees). If you insist on taking an Old-Blood, take Kroq-Gar. Otherwise, a Slann or Kroxigor Ancient would be better suited for your needs.
::'''Immortal Empires''': Saurus Old-Bloods get some new life pumped into their battle-tested bones in Immortal Empires, at least when fighting under Kroq-Gar's banner. Universal 15% Upkeep discounts for all armies led by Saurus Old-Bloods and an additional +1% Weapon Strength boost for each level your Old-Blood gains make these guys your go-to beatsticks. Their discounted upkeep costs also make it easier to field ''more'' armies which, especially in the mid-late game, is particularly valuable as your empire's borders outpace your glacial economy's ability to upgrade settlement infrastructure in a timely manner. Slann are, of course, still quite valuable, though with Sacred Spawning Caverns and Temple Guard Barracks providing increased starting ranks to Old-Bloods and Scar-Veterans, it's hard to say no to these guys. At least when riding with Kroq-Gar.

*'''Red-Crested Skink Chief (DLC 1)''' - Your discount Lord and the one you'll want to take if you want to reserve as much money for your big beasties as possible. Of course, you could splurge a little to put him atop an ancient stegadon to scorch swaths of infantry with the Engine of the Gods (though if you're going to do that, you may as well spring for Tehenhauin so that you at least have access to the Lore of Beasts as well). The RCSC is a competent combatant equipped with poisonous, armor-piercing attacks that can make him surprisingly dangerous in a fight, though like everything skinky, he's a particularly squishy lord when unmounted. The best use you can put him to is boosting your heroes in a 'Pompous' trait-stacking lizardman hero army, which makes an already broken strategy even stronger.

*'''Kroxigor Ancient (DLC 2)''' - Baby Nakais for those who don't quite feel up for splurging on the big boy himself. Kroxigor ancients are quite literally just watered down versions of Nakai; though they won't grant perfect vigour to all friendly forces near them, they will still wade through most infantry due to their size and mass and put out such raw damage that most non-elite infantry will falter swiftly against them. However, just like Nakai, they are completely helpless at range, are vulnerable to AP and anti-large weapons and are ''slow''. In competitive multiplayer, though they are still a bit of a niche pick, they are much more attractive than Nakai due to their cheaper price and because they have access to the Amulet of Itzl, which grants the Kroxigor Ancient 66% damage resistance for a short time. This can give them enough of an edge to eek out against enemy duelists or to survive long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

==Heroes==
As said, the Lizardmen characters can be a little sub-par compared to other factions (with the exception of the Skink Oracle, see below), but their selection is surprisingly versatile, and the Lizardmen have some of the best ''mounts'' in the game, which really helps push their characters battlefield potential. The Lizardmen also have one of the strongest Legendary Heroes in the game: Lord Kroak. These guys are capable of dealing immense damage to your enemies and ''all'' of them (except Kroak) can be mounted on one of your massive dinosaurs.

===Legendary Hero===
You've only got the one, but he's all you'll need. Lord Kroak is your expensive but powerful offensive caster and forms the center of many army formations.
*'''Lord Kroak (FLC)''' - The first of the Slann doesn't let something as trivial as death inconvenience him, or keep him from kicking warmblood ass to the Old World and back. Lord Kroak is one of a very select few heroes in the game with access to ''Greater Arcane Conduit'' (which can be paired with another Slann's Greater Arcane Conduit), making him a fantastic force multiplier in a caster-heavy list just from being present. For better or worse, Kroak doesn't have access to any lore of magic and only has two notable abilities. But ''damn'' can those abilities turn the tide of battle. His only bound ability (other than the universal Cold-Blooded) is the ''Supreme Shield of the Old Ones'', an upgraded version of the regular Shield of the Old Ones that grants allies a 44% damage resistance while within it (and stacks with the regular version if you're really in a bind). The only spell(s) he has access to is his signature Deliverance of Itza (and its three varying strengths). Deliverance of Itza, ''the'' reason you're bringing him, can virtually delete entire units from existence with an efficiency only known to the Winds of Death spell, but it has a few major drawbacks. First, it is intensely mana hungry: you'll typically only get one or two DoI (III) casts per battle before you run dangerously low on magic. By relying on DoI I or II, you won't consume as much magic per cast, but the difference in damage dealt becomes very apparent. Secondly, there is a very lengthy and obvious tell for when the spell is cast; most competent opponents will be able to move their forces away from the blast before it goes off unless you manage to pin them down with supporting spells like the Net of Amyntok or simply bodyblocking them from all sides. Thirdly, this spell is virtually useless against single entities such as Lords/Heroes and giant monsters, meaning he'll do little towards more elite doomstack lists. Despite all these cons working against him, a well timed Deliverance of Itza can and will win you battles if you plan accordingly. The best part, it deals absolutely no friendly fire damage. [[Meme|You may fire when ready]].

===Generic Heroes===
In the campaign, all Lizardmen heroes benefit from the 'Humble' trait, which appears on Lords and Heroes at random. This lets you recruit them at 2 additional ranks higher than their default rank, with unlimited stacking potential, making them stronger and more versatile earlier in the game than heroes of other factions. In the late-game, you can disband Humble heroes as you build more Slann Star-Chambers, however these are expensive buildings for non-Hexoatl factions; for the 6000 gold needed for 1 Star-Chamber, you can hire at least 4 Humble heroes for 8 bonus levels. Of course, those extra heroes each take up their respective hero slots and will take a modest sum out of your income every turn and as such are less efficient in the long run compared to Star Chambers.

*'''Saurus Scar-Veteran''' - A step down from the Old-Blood, Scar-Veterans behave in much the same manner as your generic saurus lords. Vicious and powerful combatants, Scar-Veterans are built to brazenly charge into combat and deal bloody death to all who stand in their way. The real reason you'll want to take any Scar-Vets isn't for the saurus himself, however badass he may be, but for the carnosaur mount you can put him on. Though a more expensive version of the feral carnosaur, Scar-Vets are immune to rampaging (and can indeed stop others from rampaging thanks to their Cold Blooded ability) and have a slightly stronger statline, making them excellent all-round threats to whatever your opponent might be packing. These Scar-Vets are ideal choices for armies led by slann-mage priests; they won't be competing for Winds of Magic like the skink priests and will more than make up for the slann's melee deficiency. If you want to keep him cheaper, you can take one on foot to lead fellow saurus infantry into battle, or stick in on a Cold One to ride with the rest of your cavalry. A modestly popular tactic in Multiplayer is to take two of these guys on Cold Ones to act as hero/lord hunters.
::'''Immortal Empires''': Scar-Veterans, though still quite capable in every other Lizardmen subfaction, truly shine when fighting under Kroq-Gar's flag. +30% experience gain and +1% weapon strength per earned rank (max buff of 50%) can make these guys quite vicious very quickly. Since the Humble trait, the Star Chamber and Temple Guard Barracks rank boost effects stack, you can also recruit highly ranked Scar-Veterans ''very'' early on in the campaign (relatively, that is). It's to such a degree that you could very easily start cranking out freshly recruited Scar-Veterans on Carnosaurs with a bonus 18% or higher Weapon Strength buff right out of the gate. Put in an army lead by a Saurus Old-Blood for that 15% upkeep reduction and you have yourself a solidly cost effective doomstack that, post level 20, will just respawn back home if they ever bite off more than they can chew.

*'''Skink Priest''' - Skink priests are your humble, mortal casters. Cheap and nimble, these guys can easily outrun most footslogging infantry and are fantastically flexible mages that can fill any offensive or defensive holes your army might have. If mounted on a terradon, their speed will be unparalleled (for Lizardmen); they'll be able to rain magical death anywhere on the battlefield with ease and can quickly deliver support to your forces no matter how spread out they may be. Alternatively, you may mount them on stegadons or ancient stegadons to make them terrifying all-rounders, though their price tag will quickly reflect that. probably want to stick with the regular stegadon, great hybrid artillery and melee monster
**'''Skink Priest (Heavens)''' - The Heavens discipline is among the better offensive lores of magic in the game for the instant raw damage output it's capable of. Wind Blast and Chain Lightning will be your go-to offensive spells. Comet of Cassandora, though powerful, should generally be avoided due to how long its casting time is. Harmonic Convergence and Curse of the Midnight Wind are staples of support sets and can turn your saurus infantry into immovable walls of tooth and claw.
**'''Skink Priest (Beasts)''' - Formerly your worst discipline, the Lore of Beasts has recently received a bit of a tweaking to make it considerably more attractive and usable. It's still among the least potent of your available magics, but it is among the most flexible in utility. Wyssan's Wild Form and Pann's Impenetrable Pelt provide rather significant combat buffs (particularly when stacked) while Curse of Anraheir debilitates your enemies. Offensively, Flock of Doom is a fantastic and cheap chaff cleaner that affects any units that have at least one model within its 30m range. For your single target needs, The Amber Spear allows your caster to act as impromptu artillery should the need arise. Formerly ''the'' reason to take a Beasts caster was for the Transformation of Kadon; being able to summon up to two Manticores to flank enemy formations or dive into backlines can have a massive impact on the flow of battle, but a bump up to ''20'' Winds of Magic per summon makes it challenging to make much use of your other spells in multiplayer.

*'''Skink Chief''' - Your skirmishing duelist, skink chiefs cripple enemy forces with their poisonous darts so that your army can face weaker resistance. Skink chiefs are a force to be feared when mounted on a stegadon, allowing them to easily face down many enemy heroes/lords in a one-on-one fight. In the campaign, the ability to build skink chief capacity-increasing buildings in minor settlements means you can spam them across the map or stack up to 19 of them into an army, which can be hilariously broken depending on the traits and items you equip them with.

*'''Skink Oracle (DLC 3)''' - By far the best Hero for the Lizardmen, the Skink Oracle brings a cavalcade of well rounded offensive and supportive magic to the field atop a mighty Troglodon. And only on a Troglodon, so he's very much an "all or nothing" type of unit. The first major reason the Skink Oracle makes for a popular pick is the fact that he's your only non-Slann source of magical healing, potentially freeing up your Lord choice for a more offensive beat stick like Kroq-Gar or even a Kroxigor Ancient. Secondly, as a hero, not only does your Skink Oracle provide a use of Cold-Blooded for the rest of your forces, but his own Troglodon will never rampage. Magical prowess aside, this alone is worth considering the rather steep price-tag. Speaking of, the Troglodon allows the Skink Oracle to function as a mid-range anti-Monster skirmisher. Combined with a potential Fireball cast here or there, the Skink Oracle ''excels'' at chunking opposing Lords/Heroes, especially if they're atop a mount or naturally monstrous in size. Just don't have him brazenly lead the charge into melee combat, as he won't last terribly long in it. If your army would like to use a non-Lore of Life Slann or any non-Slann Lord for that matter (effectively any LL banner army), a Skink Oracle and a Revivification Bastilodon or two are excellent tools to keep your forces in tip-top shape so that they can keep doing what they do best.

==Units==
Many lizardmen units are available in standard and 'blessed' variants. Blessed units are only made available in the campaign by completing random timed missions, such as getting 1000 kills or winning 4 battles, but make up for their randomness and limited quantity by being free to recruit at any time in any army and by having at least one extra ability or superior stat over their contemporary counterparts. They aren't to be confused with Regiments of Renown, unique units recruited at max rank and limited to one instance per. In casual multiplayer matches with Unit Caps turned off, Blessed Units are recruitable for only a modest bump in price over their generic counterparts.

===Infantry===
Infantry provide the foundation of every army in Total War: Warhammer, and the Lizardmen are no different. Indeed, even the humble skinks have their place.

====Melee Infantry====
*'''Skink Cohort''' - Skinks armed with little macuahuitls and shields, skink cohorts are cheap chaff units primarily used to fill out rosters or to support your more expensive infantry actually doing the killing. Despite being shielded, these guys will die by the score due to their pitiful defensive statline if they face any frontline infantry head on and are one of the few lizardmen units prone to routing from leadership issues. Having said that, skink cohorts are among the fastest cheap infantry units in the game and are still rather decent combatants when fighting similar unarmored units and tend to win such engagements (namely against chaff or low tier infantry like Bretonnian peasantry or Vampire Count zombies). Indeed, their speed is invaluable for flanking enemies tied up by your saurus warriors and chasing routing enemies off the map. When pinching pennies, you can't argue with that. In campaign these guys can be skipped entirely for the javelin version instead as the missile attack for 10 extra upkeep per turn is leagues better than just having the club.

*'''Red-Crested Skinks (DLC 1)''' - Angry skinks wielding poisonous, armor-piercing warhammers. Red-Crested Skinks provide an invaluable source of early game/cheap melee AP damage and poison, though they're less effective against unarmored targets as a whole compared to regular Skink Cohorts. They lack both shields and armor and as they are simply skinks, they will die in droves unless they're taking refuge among the far burlier saurus warriors. On that note, RC skinks synergize excellently with saurus warriors, as they can simultaneously chew through armored units the saurus tend to bounce off of and further cripple these enemies with poison, allowing your much slower saurus to both catch up to and butcher them with greater ease. Just like skink cohorts, these guys are at home in watery environments and are easily able to outflank many slower infantry units.
**'''Cohort of Sotek (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Unbreakable angry skinks wielding poisonous, armor-piercing warhammers. These guys have a unique ability, ''Refuse to Die''. When active, no skink models can die (they can still take damage, however), which can maximize their damage output when taking sudden burst damage or ensure that they hold the enemy in place for a precious few more seconds. The fact that they're unbreakable really synergizes well with this perk, as it means that your opponent is going to have to commit to completely eradicating the unit (which, admittedly, isn't really ''that'' tall an ask all things considered). This can buy some of your other forces some precious moments to regroup should the tide be against your favor.
:::'''Campaign Note''': Auto-Resolve tends to value every flavor of Red-Crested Skink just slightly more than the dirt they stand on, so unless you are ok with them taking massive casualties or outright getting wiped out every time you click that auto-resolve button, you'll either need to fight your battles manually or pick up regular Skink Cohorts if you need chaff infantry to pad out your forces.

*'''Saurus Warriors''' - Saurus warriors are probably the first thing that comes to mind when one mentions the lizardmen, and for good reason. Resilient, determined and natural fighters, saurus warriors are one of the most durable base line infantry units in the game due to their high HP and armor and can hold their own even against the more elite infantry options of other factions (Note: they can fight a unit of chaos warriors to stalemate). Should they find themselves in a losing matchup, their naturally high leadership will keep them standing firm against the enemy far longer than their equivalents in other factions would, even if they lose control and rampage towards their inevitable deaths (in game II. They've since become far more disciplined in game III). To compensate, saurus are slow and are prone to being kited, so skink skirmishers/cohorts should be utilized to help pin down the enemy line until the saurus make it into combat. Saurus warriors are available in both standard and shielded variants, but the only reason to not get the shielded version is if you need every last gold coin you can rub together for your bigger monsters on a tight, competitive budget.
**'''Blessed Saurus Warriors''' - Shielded saurus warriors with an even higher base health and [[awesome|perfect vigour]]. These guys make fantastically cost efficient walls that will never tire no matter how hard they're pushed. In the campaign, they are one of the better frontline choices you can give your non-doomstack armies that can find a place even into the late game, so long as they manage to survive and rank up. Gor-Rok, if chosen as your initial legendary lord, can use his rite to grant further defensive bonuses and ''unbreakable'' to them (in game II. Game III replaces unbreakable with the barrier ability and immunity to hostile effects like Poison instead); they will never yield.

*'''Saurus Spears''' - Warriors equipped with anti-large spears for engaging cavalry and monsters. They're nearly identical to regular saurus warriors in every other way, though they do slightly less damage against regular infantry in exchange for their anti-large speciality. Like the warriors, they come in unshielded or, for a slight premium, shielded variants.
**'''Blessed Saurus Spears''' - Buffed up saurus spears with shields, the blessed variant of these saurus are dramatically inferior to their standard cousins since they lack perfect vigour. Instead, the bonus ability granted to them is Forest Strider, a perk that grants additional melee attack and defense buffs to them while fighting in forests. If you can lure cavalry and large monsters into forests, where they'll suffer additional penalties simply due to how forests interact with them, you can deal impressive sustained damage to them in short order. Unfortunately, this ability does nothing for them outside of forests and ''many'' battlefields will have a dearth of forest patches that you can fight in. Additionally, uncooperative opponents will generally avoid trying to engage your forces inside forests and trying to convince them otherwise may prove too time consuming for what it's worth. Regardless, they still have more health than the regular saurus spears. That's always a plus.
**'''Legion of Chaqua (RoR, DLC 1)''' - The Legion of Chaqua, thanks to their special ability, are able to provide themselves and all nearby allied units a surprising 44% missile resistance for a limited time upon activation. This is an invaluable skill to have on the approach, as many of your unshielded infantry and larger monsters are vulnerable to being focused down by the much superior ranged infantry found in other armies and can be further supplemented by a Slann's Shield of the Old Ones if necessary. Otherwise, these guys simply behave exactly as Saurus Spears are expected to.

*'''Temple Guards''' - The fearsome Temple Guards, renowned for their devotion to their Slann masters, stand ready to slaughter all who'd bring harm to their otherwise vulnerable charges. Temple Guard are the only "elite" infantry within the lizardmen roster, which is more a testament to how strong regular saurus are compared to the melee infantry of other armies. Speaking of how strong regular saurus are, Temple Guard fall short of them against unarmored infantry on the whole. This isn't to say Temple Guard aren't impressive; their heightened statline makes them less likely to budge than regular saurus are while their charge defense and bonus damage against large foes and predominantly armor-piercing weaponry lets them effectively face down a majority of late-game/elite cavalry, monsters and even armored infantry much more effectively than regular saurus. Unfortunately, this general prowess reflects heavily in their price tag and you'll struggle to field multiple units of these without heavily cutting into your other options.
**'''Blessed Temple Guards''' - Recolored Temple Guards, these guys are a slightly more offensive version of their default variants thanks to an increased charge bonus. This makes them significantly more well rounded and will allow you to more flexibly choose how you engage your enemies; do you brace and negate an incoming charge, or is the foe squishy enough where a counter charge would be more punishing? All in all a nice upgrade if only for the usual buff to their health blessed units receive.
**'''Star-Chamber Guardians (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Take Temple Guard and make their weapons also deal magical damage: you now have ''the'' most elite infantry unit available to the Lizardmen. Having magical attacks allows the SCG to engage many undead/demonic forces that utilize high physical resistance and cut them down with ease. SCG also serve as excellent bodyguards for lords (particularly Slann) due to their Guardian ability and when properly supported with healing magic, these guys will ''never'' die. Their only major weakness of note is prolonged anti-armor ranged firepower and artillery, but as they are armored and shielded and have a frankly gargantuan health pool, it will take a long time to fully whittle them down.

====Missile Infantry====
*'''Skink Cohort with Javelins''' - Skinks armed with little macuahuitls, shields and three javelins each. For pennies over a regular skink cohort, you can give them limited ranged support with poisonous javelins; a fantastic way to soften up an enemy unit for your front line infantry on the charge. With their speed, they can also easily circle about and pepper an opposing unit's backsides before charging in to cut off their escape while your saurus chew through them. Once they throw all their javelins, they're identical to the default skink cohort in virtually every way. Generally, if you're planning on taking skink cohorts at all, you should almost always pick these guys up over the standard versions (unless you ''really'' need every gold coin you can possibly scrape together for a specific competitive multiplayer build).

*'''Skink Skirmishers''' - Skinks equipped with little blowpipes and poisonous darts, and your first dedicated missile infantry. Skink skirmishers lack the sheer range available to most other factions and struggle to do damage against armored opponents. Instead, they should be used exclusively as harassers; their speed, ability to fire while moving and vanguard deployment options allow them to easily get into flanking positions and kite enemy infantry while inflicting poison onto them for when the rest of your army catches up. These guys will melt quickly if caught in the crosshairs of opposing archers/gunners and are pitiful in a fistfight, so you should only get one or two of these units at most, and only if you absolutely cannot afford taking chameleon skinks instead.
**'''Blessed Skink Skirmishers''' - Skink skirmishers with more health and an innate magic spell resistance. This extra durability is nice, but the spell resistance in particular isn't going to see much use due to these guys rather high mobility and any targetable spell an opponent ''could'' cast on them would be served much better against... literally anything else in your army. There's virtually no reason to bring these in Multiplayer (even if Blessed units are allowed for the match) and the only reason you'll want to recruit them in any of your Campaigns would be if you're in desperate need of reinforcements for a beat-up army you simply cannot afford to lose and you just ''happen'' to have some Blessed Skink Skirmishers to burn. The moment you are in a position where you can recruit/replace other units, these guys should be the first to go.

*'''Chameleon Skinks''' - Ninja skinks equipped with little blowpipes and poisonous darts. Though fewer in number than basic skink skirmishers, chameleon skinks are considerably more durable thanks to their flat 40% missile resistance and have a much easier time sneaking around enemies thanks to their Chameleon ability. This, along with their loose formation, can make them surprisingly effective at countering enemy archers. They otherwise fulfill the exact same harassment role your regular skink skirmishers do and deal a disappointingly low amount of damage against armored targets. Also, like skink skirmishers, they are unable to curve their shots well meaning they're less effective in siege battles than the archers of other races.
**'''Blessed Chameleon Skinks''' - Slightly swole Chameleon Skinks with twice the charge bonus (which is barely anything, especially combined with their rather tragic melee statline) and a few extra darts per skink. More ammunition is always welcome in a firefight, but it's hardly a game changer. Regardless, better stats do open up options and if you have a choice between these and regular Chameleon Skinks, may as well pick these guys.
:::Oxyotl's banner army in the campaign should almost entirely consist of these guys. Between the AP bonus damage, variant ammunitions he can grant them in addition to giving them perks like Snipe, there's almost no force these guys can't just shoot to death with relative ease. Siege Battles or battles featuring multiple enemy banner armies might become tricky, but that's why you always have at least a couple Skink Oracles or Skink Chiefs with Stalk to clean up shop.

*'''Chameleon Stalkers (DLC 3)''' - Angry ninja skinks with little blowpipes and [[what|explosive darts]]. Chameleon Stalkers fill the rather niche role of shock infantry for the Lizardmen. Each skink is equipped with two Precursor blowpipe shots that deal rather impressive burst damage against unarmored targets either on the charge or when falling back from a melee engagement. As they possess the same Chameleon ability their standard Chameleon Skink kin have, they do have a lot of wiggle room to get into an optimal charging position and can quickly fade away from the fray when things go south. Speaking of things going south, though Stalkers are reasonably decent at combat due to their poisoned attacks and mediocre stats, they still tend to lose against medium tier and above infantry or anything with armor. That said, even against armored infantry, much of the Stalker's value comes from the heavy formation disruption their Precursor Rounds cause, slowing down their targets and interrupting their charge so that you can take the initiative in the ensuing engagement. They can also deal decent burst damage against single entity units in a pinch, but this is generally an inefficient use of them.

====Monstrous Infantry====
*'''Kroxigors''' - Kroxigors, as to be expected from 12-foot tall crocodile men, are beastly armor-piercing anti-infantry blenders who can carve through lower tier units like butter and are sturdy enough to hold back more elite units for your more capable specialists. Though quite tanky and reasonably quick (compared to your saurus), they are still large (with the weaknesses all that entails) and very vulnerable to getting shot to hell and back or getting slammed by larger cavalry/monsters. While Kroxigors do hit damn hard, their total damage is divided between three subcatagories: Base, Anti-Infantry and Armor-Piercing. As such, they only really get the most bang for their buck when thrown against armored infantry. While they are able to tie up units that fall outside of those categories, they become dramatically less effective and ''will'' lose the grindfest if they aren't supported. Just like in the tabletop, they pair fantastically with supporting skinks to flank and tie up enemy forces or debuff them with poison to make them even more vulnerable to the kroxigors.
**'''Blessed Kroxigors''' - If you thought regular kroxigors were thick, you haven't seen these thunder-thighs strut their stuff. Though the standard health increase is all well and good, blessed kroxigors received a substantial buff to their charge bonus. This can make them surprisingly deadly cycle-chargers which, combined with their anti-infantry/armor niche, will let them crack massive holes in front lines.

*'''Sacred Kroxigors (DLC 2)''' - Kroxigors with [[power fists]]. These magical boxing gloves turn your kroxigors into all-purpose ass pounders who punch holes in armored foes effortlessly and tear through things with low magic resistance like so much wet paper. Much like regular kroxigors, sacred kroxigors get the most bang for their buck when supported by skinks (ideal) or saurus (when you don't want to move from that spot). Unlike standard Kroxigors, Sacred Kroxigors are much more well rounded offensively and will perform much more efficiently against opponents regular Kroxigors tend to struggle or stalemate against. Additionally, as the only non-RoR/Lord unit in your roster with Magical Attacks, these guys are your go-to melee force to deal with Ethereal units, Treemen and other high-physical resistance targets. Additionally, as Magic Resist is slated to change to only affect damage caused by Spells, Sacred Kroxigors will be very well suited to deal with the forces of the Dwarfs and Khorne going forward.
**'''Cohort of Huatl (RoR, DLC 2)''' - Sacred kroxigors with much higher physical resistance and straight up sunder enemy armor, allowing units like your saurus warriors to deal more damage to them.

===Cavalry===
Lizardmen cavalry are slow, for cavalry. They will never catch horse-mounted cavalry of other races, and it is risky to use them as a distraction if your enemy is using anything more than basic cavalry archers. Expect lizardmen cavalry to take heavy losses in prolonged combat, and learn to cycle-charge with them.

*'''Feral Cold Ones''' - A pack of clever girls, with no saurus riders. Feral cold ones are extremely speedy units (by lizardmen standards) that effectively function as light cavalry built for chasing down skirmishers, ranged back lines and artillery pieces. Their ability to cause fear also comes in handy for landing rear charges against a foe tied up in combat with your frontline infantry, as well as ensuring routed enemies leave the battlefield permanently. Unfortunately, their raw damage output is rather low and they themselves are particularly frail and prone to rampaging, which means a bad engagement will result in a swift end for them. They're cheap as chips though, so you can't complain too much over losing 'em.
**Being able to summon them after performing the Rite of Primeval Glory is really handy when facing off against Skaven artillery.

*'''Cold One Riders''' - Standard cold one riders are your first full-blooded cavalry option. Though significantly swifter than your infantry, cold one riders lag behind their competition in other factions and are particularly vulnerable to anti-large cavalry units because of this. In an ideal setting, cold one riders will serve as the hammer to the anvil that is your saurus frontline; decisive charges into the rear of enemy formations can deal heavy damage and can completely lock down ranged infantry or artillery. Being both armored and shielded gives them respectable staying power as well and allows them to remain in extended combat should the need arise. That said, like most cavalry, they truly shine when they're able to freely cycle charge to maximize their damage output and heavily abuse enemy morale.

*'''Cold One Spear-Riders''' - The name says it all; these are cold one riders with spears. This turns them into a dedicated anti-large cavalry unit that can deal not inconsequential damage to opposing cavalry, artillery and monsters. Unfortunately, in cav v. cav engagements, cold one spear riders will often fall short due to their below average speed letting many opposing options run circles around them. As such, they tend to work best when used defensively. When opposing cavalry buckles down to charge into your flanks, counter charge them with your spear-riders to either intercept or divert them from your more vulnerable elements. They do deal decent armor-piercing damage on their own right, but they'll often lose against more elite cavalry options and their strength quickly diminishes in prolonged engagements.
**'''Blessed Cold One Spear-Riders''' - Blessed cold one spears are extremely similar to the Pok-Hopak Cohort in the sense that they both don't run the risk of rampaging. This is a very valuable perk on a unit that will often find itself separated from your main army, especially when combined with their heightened durability. If you have a need for cold one spears and have access to these, there's literally no reason not to take them.
**'''Pok-Hopak Cohort (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Fearless and focused spear-riders, these guys are both immune to psychology ''and'' lack primal instincts, meaning you'll never need to worry about them rampaging or fleeing from enemy monsters. Additionally, the Pok-Hopak cohort is able to utilize vanguard deployment, giving them a tactical edge over their generic counterparts that cannot be underestimated. If you're thinking about taking a unit of spear-riders, there's literally no reason to not just take these guys instead.

*'''Horned Ones''' - Your only elite cavalry, horned ones are simply buffed up cold one riders, plain and simple. They are significantly faster than all of your cold one riders and as such are on par with the cavalry options found in many other factions. They pack a meaty punch with a rather chunky charge bonus to boot, letting them simply smash through frontline infantry as both hammer and anvil. You'll be paying for that swollen statline though, as they are one of your most expensive non-monster units out of your entire roster (they're even more expensive than some of your monsters).
**'''Blessed Horned Ones''' - Just like the blessed cold one spears, blessed horned ones won't rampage when caught unawares. Considering these are your elite cav units, you will ''always'' want to make sure they can get out of a bad engagement whenever you need them to.

*'''Terradon Riders''' - Javelin skinks riding Terradons and carrying stone bombs. While relatively fast for the lizardmen, terradon riders are among the slowest flying cavalry in the game, and are a fairly niche choice in battle. This niche can best be summed up as aerial harriers, ideal for sniping out artillery, mages or unarmored infantry or monsters (which is admittedly a bit of a rarity). Their attacks also apply Poison, which makes them a little more useful than their raw stats make them seem on paper and helps further support other units in your army. Additionally, they are quite micro-friendly since they are able to fire and move with their javelins and, with proper positioning, can drop a once-per-battle set of stone bombs to deal massive damage to clustered up infantry beneath their wings. That said, as fairly large, unarmored and slow moving targets with fairly pitiful melee stats, these guys can be very easy to snipe out of the air by decent missile infantry and are ''very'' vulnerable to pretty much anything else that is also in the air with them. In a pinch, they can also be used as rear-chargers to help route enemies or tie down missile infantry, but Old Ones help them if something points an extra long stick at them. If you're facing an infantry heavy army, Fireleech Bolas Terradons tend to net you better value.
**'''Pahuax Sentinels (RoR, DLC 1)''' - These special edition terradon riders are particularly nimble and have an innate resistance to melee and missile attacks that gives them ''far'' more staying power than any of your other flying cavalry. If only to serve as a distraction, these guys can be used in lieu of skink priests/chiefs in an attempt to waste your opponent's missile infantry/artillery ammo. Otherwise, use them to harass enemy units with poisoned missiles and to escort routing foes off the battlefield.

*'''Fireleech Bolas Terradon Riders''' - These are far better Terradon Riders than the base variant. While they no longer inflict Poison on enemy units, their fireleech bolas deal explosive fire damage, inflicting greater damage overall against infantry formations and fire-weak entities while dealing higher leadership penalties in the process. Like regular Terradon Riders, they also can fire and move, letting them more or less function as prehistoric bombers. They still carry stone bombs, which can be devastatingly effective when used in concert with a line of saurus warriors pinning enemy melee units or shutting down artillery, but just like regular Terradon Riders, they are fairly useless in melee and are terribly vulnerable to other fliers and ranged missile fire. If you're dealing with smaller, physically larger units (monstrous infantry or single-entity monsters) with low armor, Terradon Riders are more efficient against them.
**'''Blessed Terradon Riders''' - Blessed Terradon Riders, aside the traditional increase in health, only received one minor adjustment over their basic counterparts; speed. At a speed stat of 110 as opposed to the standard 90, Blessed Terradon Riders can manuever across the battlefield notably more quickly than any other unit in your entire army. Nice, for a unit designed to harass and waste/dodge enemy missile fire, but ultimately a rather minor selling point on an admittedly mediocre and situational unit.
**Fireleech Bolas can be used to game the AI, especially when you're facing off against the Chaos Invasion. Even having just three of these guys bombard the Chaos Hellcannons can save you a lot of grief, and you're not really going to miss them if they got shot down. They're also really helpful against Vampire Coast, as they're one of the few skirmishers you have that can raise hell against a zombie gunline/artillery.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders (DLC 1)''' - The obsidian knife of lizardmen flyers. Ripperdactyls are your flying can-openers with a minor bonus against infantry and a ''massive'' AP bonus. Combined with their solid melee attack stat and Frenzy bonus, these guys utterly shred armored foot soldiers. Unfortunately, their non-existent armor, low melee defense, low model count and large size makes these guys terribly susceptible to counterattack. If they get boxed in, much less by anything with an anti-large bonus, you will be impressed by how quickly they die. Because of this, and the fact much of their damage is dedicated against armored targets, Ripperdactyls tend to be a bit of a niche choice in army lists not built around Tiktaq'to. None-the-less, they are much more effective than Terradon Riders at shutting down missile infantry formations and artillery platforms. Just make sure you are constantly aware of the tactical situation and only call them down when you can support them or escape before enemy reinforcements manage to pin them down.
**'''Colossadon Hunters (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Bigger, hungrier ripperdactyls with a penchant for bigger prey; an additional anti-large bonus can turn them into cavalry buzzsaws and can let them deal sickening damage to mounted enemy lords or cavalry and are the best/only option for fighting flying enemy lords/heroes on semi-even ground. Suffice to say, they're still very weak to anti-large weaponry themselves and will seldom win against combat dedicated lords/heroes in a "1"v1 fight. As such, they'll need support through terradon riders (for the poison) as well as additional ripperdactyls to stand an honest shot against such a foe, though they're still not guaranteed a victory. Should they lose, they'll still leave a hell of a mark on whatever cavalry/monster they were fighting and such scars could prove pivotal to bringing them down with the rest of your army.

===Hunting Packs===
*'''Salamander Hunting Pack (DLC 1)''' - A ''much'' needed addition to the Lizardmen's borderline vacant missile unit roster, Salamander Hunting Packs are a fantastic general use ranged unit and are among the better missile cavalry options in the game. Though they can't fire while moving like other missile cavalry options, they deal a rather frightening amount of flaming explosive damage per volley with not inconsequential AP and rather notable anti-large bonuses to top it off. Much like your other non-single entity heavy hitters, Salamanders can do some damage in melee, but they really should avoid it unless absolutely necessary. Terrible defensive values will make Salamander Hunting Packs feel every blow that hits their unarmored hides. If you want to keep them in the fight, make sure you have a few Saurus Spears or Spear Cold One Riders to counter enemy cavalry. They can fire over units and obstacles.
**'''The Umbral Tide (RoR, DLC 1)''' - Sneaky salamander hunting packs with perfect vigour and stalk, the Umbral Tide is able to covertly cross a majority of the battlefields you may find yourself on and can easily set up an ambush against unsuspecting opponents. Even after running from one end of the battle to the other and loosing every last fireball from their collective gullets, the Umbral Tide will still have a spring to their step should they join the melee fray. If you can only afford a single Salamander Pack, try to budget for these guys.

*'''Razordon Hunting Pack (DLC 2)''' - Razordons are your anti-armor missile cavalry. Unlike the Salamanders, who burp up one flaming projectile apiece, Razordons lob three spikes at a time when they attack. Though the damage per individual projectile is... well, pitiful, combined they can deal a rather staggering amount of AP damage that can either be divided among dense clusters of armored infantry formations or a single armored target. Additionally, Razordons are much more adept at lobbing their shots, giving them a bit of an edge over Salamanders in uneven terrain. Unfortunately, that's about where the good news ends. With a shorter firing range than Salamanders and utterly abysmal base damage on their projectiles ([[What|Chameleon Skinks have stronger missiles against unarmored foes than these guys]]) and no additional bonuses to speak of (fire damage, explosive damage, anti-large/infantry, nothing), there's generally no reason to take Razordons over Salamanders in general lists. Against the heavily armored forces of the Warriors of Chaos, Dwarfs or even other Lizardmen, Razordons might find a more valuable niche.
::'''Warhammer III''' Not only have these guys gained a better firing arc, enabling them to better fire spikes at targets over terrain/allied units, but the projectiles themselves now pierce through multiple entities. Currently, they're particularly powerful and can quickly mulch armored infantry with as few as two or three volleys.
**'''Amaxon Barbs (RoR, DLC 2)''' - Razordons with poisonous spikes and a flat 15% missile resistance, these guys aren't much to write home about. Yes, poison is nice, but you don't exactly need to dig very deep for alternative ways to access it. The missile resistance is a nice, if moderately more situational perk, but it's not a particularly notable resistance and it does nothing for potential melee engagements. In the event you need a razordon hunting pack for anti-armor firepower, you may as well pick these guys up, but only if you have the extra gold once you've established your core army roster.

===Monsters===
The big beasts and the creatures most opponents expect to face when fighting the lizardmen. Potent and powerful monsters, you have a dinosaur for every occasion; you'll simply need to choose the right ones. Beware of enemy tarpits if you don't have a high-level mage in your army; dinosaurs will take additional damage from their flanks and rear if they are surrounded and that can quickly wear them down.

*'''Feral [[Bastilidon]]''' - Your cheapest single entity dinosaur as well as your sturdiest. Feral bastilidons are effectively just a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]] that you throw into enemy frontlines to stir up some chaos, cause some fear and just generally soak damage while the rest of your army dismantles the enemy. These guys can still earn you some crazy value against armies that field a lot of chaff infantry, like Skaven, Beastmen or Bretonnia.
::'''Campaign''': These guys are your entry-level monsters, being recruitable basically from the start of the game. As tanky anti-infantry monsters, these guys can net you some crazy value against the early-game armies of other factions for cheap-as-chips prices.

*'''Solar Engine Bastilidon''' - Your first, cheaper artillery option. Solar Engines fire off a single missile that simultaneously blinds and burns enemy units, reducing their combat effectiveness and dealing bonus damage against anything that regenerates health naturally. These laser bolts have a lower maximum range, are relatively slow moving and are much easier to dodge than the smaller, faster, harder to see bolts fired by the stegadon, but they have slightly higher damage per shot and a larger splash radius when targeting groups of infantry. In another contrast to the stegadon, the beams fired by the solar engine deal flat magical damage, meaning enemies with high magical resistance will largely shrug off the damage dealt by the solar engine itself. The only ''major'' drawback of the solar engine is that the Beam of Chotek, though an armor-piercing missile (its unit toolbar does not show the armor-piercing icon), deals relatively low bonus damage against armored units and as such will become less efficient compared to the stegadon when targeting heavily armored monsters over formations of armored infantry. At the end of the day, when all else fails, there's still a fully grown bastilidon underneath that laser crystal. Keep in mind, like every ranged unit, firing their missiles depletes their vigour and should be taken into account if you're planning on sending it into combat.
**'''Blessed Solar Engine Bastilidon''' - Perfect vigour's value cannot be overstated on a melee capable monster that would otherwise tire itself out just from holding a laser cannon in place. The greater defensive value of the bastilidon compliments the increased health quite nicely and will allow the blessed variant to stay in the thick of it considerably longer than others of its kind.

*'''Revivification Crystal Bastilidon''' - Your only non-magical source of healing, revivification crystals are one of the few healing options in the game that not only restores a unit's health but also actually revives dead models; a perk that's particularly valuable on your elite units like kroxigors or temple guard. A revivification crystal pairs excellently with a Life Slann in infantry heavy lists as you can very rapidly bring a unit back from the brink to near pristine (or whatever their healing cap is, depending on how used and abused they are), or for ensuring crucial monsters (like carnosaurs and dread saurians) become virtually unkillable. They are of limited use in a dinosaur army if your lord isn't a Life Slann, as their minor healing ability is short-ranged and can only target a single unit with a relatively lengthy cooldown between uses. Additionally, and this is a notable hitch, models don't start coming back to life until all the still living models have been fully healed up. This, consequently, makes it difficult to rebuild your forces if they're in active combat or taking damage from other sources. Having said that, they're still one of two sources of healing non-slann lords have access to and the only healing option that doesn't impose on your Winds of Magic reserve (which is still a plus, as other armies don't have such a luxury). As a bastilidon variant, it can also throw itself into combat with little fear. Pro tip: Don't click that "end battle" button; instead, use it to revive what you can and win the fight with fewer casualties.

*'''Ark of Sotek Bastilodon (DLC 1)''' - Functionally just a regular bastilidon, but with the ability to unleash an AoE burst of poison on all enemies surrounding it. As it's only a minor increase in cost over the feral version, the Ark of Sotek may be worth getting for the very minor amount of damage and extra poison it can apply to the invariable mosh pits bastilidons often find themselves in. Alternatively, you can get much more utility from the other two non-feral variants, and rely on your skinks to supply poison or your mages to deal burst damage to tarpits of infantry. In Campaign these boys are one of your mainstay units until tier 4 stegadons, with the lizardmens low growth and poor early-game economy the low-cost high reward of these guys can easily melt through tons of early game infantry, a must-get.

*'''Feral Stegadon''' - A wild stegadon, pure and simple. A living battering ram, stegadons are fantastic line breakers and are well rounded enough to survive the ensuing melee while dealing respectable damage in turn. Like all feral dinosaur variants, its only major weakness is a vulnerability to rampaging courtesy of its lower leadership. This is a forgivable flaw, considering how cheap they are and the fact that you can simply use Cold Blooded to snap them out of it definitely lessens the severity of an occasional rampage.

*'''[[Stegadon]]''' - A stegadon with a long-range ballista and skink handlers mounted upon its back. Stegadons serve as the second of your two artillery options and are arguably the best at dealing raw damage: the ballista is unerringly accurate and can easily snipe opposing artillery pieces, usually destroying the cannon/catapult models in question before they can get much usage. What's more is that, as it's connected to a single entity monster itself, the ballista is not vulnerable to these same tactics. Like Cygors or Steam Tanks, Stegadons compensate for the lack of firepower volume traditional artillery pieces can put out by retaining its long ranged assaults until it is either out of ammunition or has been killed. The stegadon's ranged attack generally struggles to deal significant damage to infantry formations due to the narrow projectiles and low splash damage (despite the bonus anti-infantry modifiers it gets). Regardless, the shot still deals incredible damage to heavily armored, single entity monsters (particularly a majority of mounted lords/heroes) due to their immense bonus AP damage. Even should you run out of ammunition or should your opponent try to tie it down in melee... it's still a stegadon. With skinks firing poisoned darts at everything surrounding its legs, it will put up just as much of a fight as its feral counterpart and then some. The only downside to the ballista is that firing it will drain the stegadon's vigour (even if it's standing perfectly still), meaning it'll likely perform less efficiently in any ensuing melee if it doesn't get a break between firing and fighting.
**'''Blessed Stegadon''' - Hoh boy, now we're talking. A massive buff to the stegadon's health will allow him to take significantly more punishment over the rest of his variants, but that's not really the main selling point here. The blessed stegadon is also gifted with perfect vigour; a massive boon to the offensive prowess of this beast. Being able to act as full blown artillery then rush into glorious melee combat to tear enemies a new asshole at peak performance is something no other faction can achieve remotely as effectively as these guys can. If a quest pops up in the campaign with these as a reward, you should do your damndest to accomplish it. They're well worth it.

*'''Ancient Stegadon''' - Where the stegadon does its best work from afar, the ancient stegadon needs to get up close and personal to do business. The howdah, though packed with significantly more ammo, is much shorter ranged and is primarily meant to soften up nearby targets for a follow up charge into melee. Ancient stegadons are somewhat tankier than other stegadon variants, though their limited range debatably renders them less effective offensively. In general, you should either spring for the Engine of the Gods or stick with a regular stegadon..
**'''The Thunderous One (RoR, DLC 1)''' - A beefed up ancient stegadon that calls down bolts of lighting every 20 seconds, the Thunderous One was made to wade into the enemy's front line and deal indiscriminate damage. Unfortunately, these bolts of lightning can and will deal friendly fire to your units. This can make it somewhat challenging to support its charge with infantry or cavalry, though allied single entity monsters typically won't mind the stray blast.

*'''Engine of the Gods Ancient Stegadon (DLC 1)''' - Is all the gold armor embedded into your ancient stegadon not quite flashy enough for you? Just give it the ability to call down an orbital bombardment to glass swarms of warmbloods in the name of the Great Plan. The Stegadon itself is, functionally, an Ancient Stegadon. It behaves identically like one and has the exact same statline, but once you get to its abilities, things start to get interesting. It has two supporting abilities, Arcane Configuration (Winds of Magic Power Recharge rate boost) and the Portent of Warding (a 5% Ward Save for all allied units within 40m). These effects make EotG Stegadons fantastic supporting units simply from their presence alone. And yes, this applies to EotG Stegadon Mounts, so your Skink Priests have access to their own personal WoM batteries. The third, and debatably the main reason you're considering this ornate beast, is the Burning Alignment active ability. Though limited to only two uses, the Engine of the Gods can deal devastating damage to infantry focused lists if the Burning Alignment is used at just the right moment. It's particularly effective when fired into choke points or along your enemy's frontline ranks when they're tied up with your forces. Thankfully, the Burning Alignment ability is extremely accurate for (what is functionally) a wind spell; so long as you aim carefully and don't wander your lizardmen into it's path, you can drop it right in front of your forces with little fear.

*'''Ancient Salamander (DLC 1)''' - A single giant salamander, tempered with age, experience and able to melt opponents with extra spicy hellfire. Ancient salamanders are more durable than their lesser hunting pack kin and are more reliably able to survive the occasional melee scuffle, though it generally shouldn't participate in it. Instead, the ancient salamander truly shines when paired with fire slann, salamander hunting packs, fireleech bolas terradons, or solar engine bastilidons thanks to its ability to render enemy units flammable with its own fireballs. This flammable effect greatly improves the damage dealt by flaming attacks and when executed properly and will burn through most infantry-focused armies with terrifying efficiency.

*'''Feral Carnosaur''' - An offensive machine, the apex predator of Lustria (you know, conventionally) and a signature monster of the lizardmen, the carnosaur is a ferocious beast that specializes in hunting other monsters, skaven weapon teams, and artillery due to their innate anti-large bonuses and armor-piercing capabilities. They're considerably frailer than stegadons and bastilidons defensively, though they are much swifter and tear through most enemies far more quickly due to their much higher attack. When funds are too tight to take a Saurus Scar-Vet or Old Blood on a carnosaur, a feral version with proper support won't steer you wrong. Just make sure you keep a leader or hero with Cold-Blooded on standby in case they get a little carried away.
**'''Blessed Feral Carnosaur''' - The blessed carnosaur. Formerly the pinnacle of lizardmen might (the dread saurian says hi), blessed carnosaurs have all the anti-large, armor-piercing wrath of the regular carnosaur supplemented by a much more rounded defensive statline. Additional health and magic resistance makes the blessed carnosaur surprisingly survivable against a myriad of generic threats and allows it to commit to fights that regular carnosaurs would hesitate towards. They are still just as vulnerable as any other carnosaur to getting mobbed or picked apart from regular armor-piercing weapons and absolutely will rampage in a bind, so don't get reckless with your charges.
**'''Geltblöm’s Terror (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Feral Carnosaur that never rampages and is blessed with both Vanguard deployment and the Strider ability, enabling it to keep up to speed in any terrain. Vanguard deployment and rampage immunity is a fantastic combination for a Lizardmen monster designed to fight other monsters, but don't get reckless.

*'''Feral Troglodon (DLC 3)''' - A Troglodon without a Skink Oracle to keep it in check. Troglodons are in essence a hybrid between an Ancient Salamander and Carnosaur in that they're able to burp up potent poisonous spit that's extremely effective against large targets. Troglodons are quite possibly the first real "skirmisher" single entity monster introduced: though they're quick for ground-bound dinosaurs, they should generally only engage in melee as a last resort or with ''heavy'' support because they are not designed to put up much of a fight. In a direct melee engagement against most other combat monsters, Troglodons tend to lose pretty handily. Their low leadership also tends to cause them to rampage quickly when caught up in a brawl. However, if they focus on kiting and sniping their targets rather than charging them, they can do frankly sickening amounts of damage.
**'''The Pale Death (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Feral Troglodon that can buff itself and nearby allies in melee whenever it uses it's Primeval Roar, giving them a rather substantial Melee Attack bonus for a short while. Though a buff of 24 Melee Attack is certainly an eyebrow raiser, it only recharges when the Pale Death is actively engaged in melee combat. For 60 seconds. On a creature that's prone to rampaging at the drop of a hat, this is a very risky commitment without a Lord/Hero nearby to keep it in check.

*'''Feral Dread Saurian (DLC 2)''' - The single largest monster in the game, dread saurians are nigh uncontested in raw damage output and are more than capable of killing every other unit in the game in a straight fight. Unfortunately for you, your opponent will be able to field ''far'' more units than your dread saurian will be able to deal with at once and most of said units will likely be picking it off at range. As a massive, lumbering behemoth, dodging even slow moving projectiles is well and truly beyond the dread saurian and it will take tremendous damage on the approach. Even once it arrives in melee, the sheer volume of bodies capable of surrounding it and poking it with anti-armor/anti-large sticks will wear it down quite quickly. Their size also provides another source of jank whenever they get bogged down by hordes; they'll struggle to properly path their way through the crowds (it doesn't help that the Dread Saurian also has relatively low mass considering it's literal size) and their attacks, while lethally brutal, also tend to miss depending on the terrain it's fighting on. They are also prohibitively expensive and will eat up a significant portion of your funds, meaning the rest of your army will be extremely limited in number. Ensure you have a proper supporting mage (a life slann is essential) if you're bringing one.

*'''Dread Saurian (DLC 2)''' - The single largest monster in the game, now wearing a howdah filled to the brim with skinks. A modest price bump from the already exorbitant feral variant will grant the regular dread saurian a higher leadership, ranged attacks and poison. There's little reason not to go ahead and splurge for these upgrades, feral or not the dread saurian will be the centerpiece of your army which you'll do everything to keep alive.
**'''Shredder of Lustria (RoR, DLC 2)''' - The single most expensive beast you could ever field, and boy does he do work. In addition to all that a dread saurian can bring to bear, the Shredder of Lustria is stacked with the full complement of veterinary stat buffs and a leadership debuff for all enemies surrounding it, a perk that, when combined with the innate fear and terror dread saurians cause, will make most enemy infantry run the ''fuck'' away very fast. If that weren't enough, the Shredder of Lustria also encourages all nearby allied troops, buffing their leadership. After all, who wouldn't be inspired by seeing the apex of lizardmen might devouring any and all who oppose the Great Plan? Speaking of the Great Plan, you're going to need one: considering how much money you're sinking into this puppy, you're going to need to really budget the rest of your army carefully.

*'''Coatl (DLC 3)''' - Previously a relic of a long lost bit of Lizardmen lore, the Coatl makes a rather striking return as the premier Lizardmen flying monster. The Coatl, though packing two casts of Urannon's Thunderbolt and one cast of Lesser Chain Lighting as bound spells, is designed more as a source of support for ground-bound allies. Infact, the main draw to the Coatl isn't its combat capabilities (which are mediocre at best), but for the fact that it grants all allied units under its wings Stalk. Yes, everything from that unit of Red-Crested Skinks to that Dread Saurian doomstack becomes invisible and untargetable until they're either far too close to do anything about or the Coatl "lands" or dies. As a faction desperately starved of long range missile units, this is a massive boon for protecting your high-value targets on the approach. Once the Coatl has safely delivered it's charges into battle, it still can serve as an excellent disruptor of backline units, Snipe artillery or single entity monsters with thunderbolt or punish a large blob with lesser chain lighting. Just be careful: even your Terradons move faster than this thing and its size does it no favors when trying to dodge missile fire.
**'''Spirit of Tepok (RoR, DLC 3)''' - A Coatl that has Banishment and Shield of Thorns as bound spells instead. The option to lean more heavily into a support role does suit the Coatl quite well, though this largely depends on what lord choice and focus your army has. If you brought a life slann or a skink priest, a regular Coatl might get you more mileage.

==Tactics==
Lizardmen are a very versatile faction when viewed over the entire campaign, however there will be times when your army composition and thus tactics are limited depending on the progress you've made in developing your empire. Your greatest limiting factor will be money; be it in single-player or multiplayer, many mid-high tier units will cost a fortune and you will invariably have a lower unit count compared to other armies. You will need to carefully consider the faction you're currently facing when forming your armies.

===Multiplayer Strategies===
So, you want to show the world a Great Plan, and TED talks aren't getting it done? You might think of the Lizardmen as just another 'big monster' faction in multiplayer, but you're limiting yourself if you think that way. The scalies have a surprising amount of options within their roster. From super wide infantry builds to kite builds built around chameleon skinks, to more mobile cavalry-centric strategies, the Lizardmen can be quite a versatile opponent. The thing you're pretty much going to universally struggle against however is factions that are heavy on the ranged play. You need to think carefully about your army comp and lord choices, then bring the Great Plan to the four corners of the Earth (or multiplayer lobby, or whatever).
====Faction Counterplay====
A list of all the other factions in the game, along side their various strengths, weaknesses and best strategies you have to combat them.

*'''Beastmen''': Highly mobile and capable of dishing out impressive damage, the Beastmen are among the fastest armies in the game (only rivaled by the Wood Elves and Slaanesh). This can be difficult to deal with, as the only infantry you possess that can potentially keep up with them are your Skinks. Skinks...generally aren't a great pick against Beastmen. They're slower still than a significant portion of the Beastmen roster and will die quite quickly due to their lack of armor and defensive stats. Skink Skirmishers/Chameleon Skinks are a minor exception, as between their poisonous missiles and the Beastmen's lack of armor, they'll actually deal respectable damage to them. Otherwise, the stalwart Saurus (Spears) will be your best frontline unit; solid charge defenses, shields and anti-large bonuses will stop any rush in its tracks and the Beastmen's complete lack of armor means that they'll take the full brunt of their attacks. Your monsters USED to be fantastic here, but with the addition of the anti-large regenerating Ghorgon, they are a much more risky proposition. Seriously, this thing will beat the pants off of pretty much any monster you bring to the table, and its surprising mobility means that your slow-moving infantry will have a hard time tarpitting it. Shredder of Lustria builds and monster mash builds which used to be hilariously effective against the Beastie Boys are now quite dangerous to bring. Without being able to overly rely on your monsters, it's going to be up to your characters and magic to be the game-changer.

*'''Bretonnia''': The end-all, be-all cavalry faction, Bretonia has access to some of the strongest mounted soldiers in the game. Their peasantry, though feeble, isn't to be underestimated in sufficient numbers and can still do notable damage through their archers and pikemen. That said, your Skink Cohorts can easily best any peasants they (effortlessly) pin down and a unit or two of Kroxigors will ''evicerate'' any foot soldier unfortunate enough to meet them in combat. Bretonnians will also struggle to hold their lines together from the sheer amount of fear/terror your monsters can cause. However, their cavalry (particularly Grail Knights) won't falter from fear alone and are renowned for their devastating charges. Brace units of Temple Guard (or Saurus Spears, if you're cheap) to mitigate their damage and box them in before they have a chance to pull back. A light slann with the Net of Amyntok can shut down Bretonian cavalry ''hard'' and should heavily be considered as your lord for this matchup.

*'''[[Total_War_Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos_Dwarves| Chaos Dwarfs]]''':

*'''Dark Elves''': The general battle plan here can best be summarized with "Grab a bunch of ranged and 2 Solar Engines and defend them at all costs because otherwise you have no way to deal with Dark Rider Crossbow and Scourgerunner spam." Seriously, those damn Anti Large missile chariots were pretty much designed to fight you. A pure melee monster rush isn't going to work otherwise you will just get kited into oblivion. Have the solar engines shoot them from afar a see if you can get you Chameleon skins to slow them down so your Cold One riders can catch up to them. Your dino cav is better than their dino cav, take advantage of that. Mazdamundi is also great for nets to lock down cavalry and get them ready for a pounding. If you can get rid of all that mobile ranged, the infantry fight should fall in your favor in no time.

*'''Dwarfs''': Dwarfs tend to form nigh impenetrable walls of armorclad infantry and are one of the few factions capable of holding the line better than you. AP weaponry is a must, so mixing Red-Crested Skinks among your Saurus can help chew through thicker formations. Kroxigors, particularly Sacred Kroxigors, will be your best infantry can openers in this fight. Despite their innate spell resistance, your offensive magics can still work wonders against most dwarfen infantry, so a heavens skink priest or fire slann wouldn't be amiss in your army here. Beware of their Giant Slayers; though fragile, they will deal terrible damage to any armored cavalry or monsters they can get their grubby dawi mitts on. Skink Skirmishers/Chameleon Skinks can easily outpace Slayer units and whittle them down with their poisoned missiles, though they'll do absolutely nothing against any of the armored infantry. Terradon riders are virtually untouchable to their ground bound forces with a special shout-out for the Fireleech Bolas variant, but you'll absolutely need to take down any Gyrocopters contesting the skies if you want to get your money's worth. Lastly, you'll want to destroy any artillery they bring before turning your attention to the rest of their forces; Ripperdactyls can easily flank and shred such devices, though you'll need to draw away any screening units if you want them to survive the aftermath. Lastly, this is one of the few matchups where Razordons are a more attractive mid-ranged option than your Salamanders.

*'''Empire''': Karl Franz brings a relatively balanced roster to the table, with plenty of long ranged anti-armor firepower and cavalry that'll run circles around yours. With the sheer volume of AP [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] units and artillery, this is a faction you'll generally want to leave the Saurus at home for. Skink Cohorts with shields are for once a rather reliable pick for your frontline, with Red-Crested Skinks and/or Kroxigors diving in once you've tied down the missile units that otherwise threaten them. Additionally, your Terradon Riders can actually be quite effective in this matchup, particularly in shutting down Grenade Launcher Outriders. A Skink Priest of Heavens with Urannon's Thunderbolt and/or Comet of Cassandora is a rather cost-efficient answer to units such as the Steam Tank and Artillery Platforms, though regular Stegadons can punch holes through them if you can keep them safe. A Slann Priest with Light Magic and the Net of Amyntok coupled with a squad or two of Salamander Hunting Packs makes for an excellent cavalry deleting squad, but you'll absolutely need to shield them with your own cavalry or at the very least some shielded Saurus Spears.

*'''Grand Cathay''': Go fast and hard into cathay's lines. Cathay brings a good amount of options against single-entity units with accurate Grand Cannons and Iron Hail Gunners amongst others. The largest you should go is an Ark of Sotek or two to mass-poison damage Cathay's entire packed formation. Go full offensive with Saurus and try to briefly contest the skies to disrupt the artillery and missiles on the charge. In general it's a poor matchup as while the other 'monster race' in the Ogres is great against Cathay it's simply a matter of price. Ogres can beat Cathay with a lot cheaper units than you can bring with Kroxigors filling the same role as Ogre bulls but 2.5 times the price. Unless your units get major discounts in multiplayer for Immortal Empires it's not a good time

*'''Greenskins''': Hordes of expendable Goblins and Ork Boyz make up the rank and file of the Greenskins. Despite having a particular focus towards mobbing you in melee combat, the Greenskins have a fairly diverse roster capable of performing decently well at ranged combat or skirmishing with their relatively diverse cavalry options. As the coup-de-grace, Greenskins also have access to several monstrous units between their selection of Trolls and Arachnarok Spiders that can mulch their weight in infantry. However, there are two major weaknesses to the Greenskin roster: they typically have ''terrible'' leadership (especially their expendable Goblin and Troll units) and a majority of their roster is unarmored. Saurus units will typically stand firm on the front lines while your Skink Skirmishers will actually do some solid work while easily outpacing the sluggish Ork Boyz, but you will ''need'' to watch out for their Cavalry. Fireleech Bolas Terradons and Salamanders will have a field day against their infantry as well, especially against the fire-weak troll units who will crumble rapidly in the face of their flammability and terrible leadership. On the note of leadership; your pantheon of Jurassic beasties will have the time of their lives against the Greenskins. Their lack of charge defense, anti-large, and low leadership means that a Carnosaur or two will bowl through their ranks largely uncontested. However, keep an eye out for Black Orcs; they're one of the few armored infantry units in the Ork roster, are armor piercing and are immune to Fear/Terror. Red-Crested Skinks are a decent budget option to deal with them, though you may prefer to kite them with Razordon Hunting Packs instead.

*'''High Elves''': Lizardmen will have some trouble countering High Elf flying monsters, particularly Phoenixes. Your ranged units aren't going to get the chance to take them down in the air, so you have to rely on catching them when they drop down to attack and that can be tricky if you're running an all-dino army. At the same time, if you're using Saurus then you will take some heavy losses from archers and cavalry if you commit them all to tarpitting the Phoenix. Chameleon Skinks are an excellent pick against archer heavy builds; their lose formation coupled with their innate missile resistance will make them extremely hard to take down at range while their chameleon skin will let them dip in and out of combat with relative ease. Sisters of Averlorn are a priority target if present on the field; a Skink Priest of Beasts may be considered if only to summon Manticores to tie them down. Additionally, the Legion of Chaqua should strongly be considered as a core part of your frontline; the ability to grant multiple units around it a 44% missile resistance is too valuable to ignore.

*'''Khorne''': Don't bring Skinks to this matchup. Barring Chameleon Skinks, Skink Skirmishers if you want to be cheap, all of your Skink Infantry will do little more than feed their skulls to Khorne's throne before they get an opportunity to do anything meaningful. A pricy Saurus front line is definitely worth it here, potentially supported by Kroxigors. For once the 'Engine of the Gods' Stegadon's death-beam will actually be useful as the Stegadon itself can knock about units and the death-beam being magic and AP will counter any infantry Khorne can bring. Bring Saurus, bring magic and your anti-large Carnosaur. A very good matchup in your favor.

*'''Kislev''': Kislev is a relatively fearless foe for you, a nice change of pace for mere mortal men. Their higher tier infantry is generally able to out-trade yours, Tzar Guard (especially the Great Weapon variety) can and will gradually carve their way through regular Saurus lines while Streltsi and Ice Guard will prove quite competent at dealing with your forces at range. Fortunately, your sheer versatility means you aren't wanting for options. Even if they're a bit slower, your Cavalry will generally outclass Kislev's, barring any War Bear Riders they may have brought. Even regular Cold One Riders will make a fantastic hammer to the anvil that is your Saurus and even a losing matchup against their stronger Tzar Guard will quickly turn in your favor with a rear charge or two. Of course, aside their War Bear Riders, Kislev's monsters can't hold a candle to yours. Once you shut down some of the ranged AP Missiles, your dinos can wreak terrible havoc upon the enemy lines. Razordons are particularly effective right now, though Salamanders can be used to efficiently deal with the more monstrous enemy units. Terradons are almost always a never-pick however as since in essence every single Kislev unit has a ranged attack that is more than capable of dealing with them Terradons are free kills for even Kossars.

*'''Lizardmen''': This...should be a no brainer in concept, though countering opposing Lizardmen can be somewhat difficult to execute. Anti-large units in some shape or form are an inarguable must; Cold One Spear-Riders accompanied by Saurus Spears can surround and pin down enemy monsters in a relatively cost-effective manner. Red Crested Skinks are an ideal infantry choice due to their poison and armor piercing bonus coming into play against a majority of the Lizardmen roster. Salamander Hunting Packs and Ancient Salamanders are fantastic all-rounders that can deal terrifying damage across the entire board. Your main objective should be to focus down any Slann Mage-Priest or Skink Priests present on the field, followed by any other lord/hero keeping potential rampages in check. If there is an opposing Slann, avoid clumping up your infantry to reduce the threat of a Banishment and/or any other vortex spell devastating your frontlines. Regular Stegadons are fantastic monster snipers who should focus fire on major threats like Carnosaurs or Dread Saurians before anything else.

*'''Norsca''': These guys are pretty much Warriors of Chaos with a little bit of [[Space Wolf|wolf]] thrown in. Like the Warriors of Chaos, they have a relative lack of missile units but unlike the Warriors of Chaos, are considerably less armored as a whole. However, they more than make up for it with their mobility and plentiful sources of anti-large, which can be seriously dangerous for one of your central strategies. Saurus Warriors as such are substantially better at holding off the bulk of their front lines while Temple Guard are a fantastic answer to their Skin Wolves and Trolls. You need to be on top of your positioning however, as Skin Wolves and Ice Wolves can run circles around your plodding infantry. Skink Skirmishers are also fantastic for dealing chip damage and applying poison while staying well out of arm's reach for a majority of their forces. (Ancient) Salamanders are also a superb choice, as are Fireleech Bolas Terradons as general damage dealers. Stegadons and Carnosaurs will likely be your go-to monsters, as a pair of Carnosaurs can typically take down a War Mammoth, at least in theory. Caution should be exercised against War Mammoths in particular, as they are one of the best monster units in the game. Considering the fact that half your list is made of monsters, that's saying something. No Norscan worth his salt will allow you to freely target down the crown jewel of his army, so make sure you commit well and truly to the fight.

*'''Nurgle''': Nurgle has no anti-large, bad armour piercing, relies on outlasting his enemies, has almost no ranged firepower worth mentioning, has incredibly poor armour, is ridiculously slow, hates fire damage, and is mediocre in the air-game. Basically, everything Nurgle hates is something you have plenty of while Nurgle has precisely zero counters to your playstyle. You almost can't lose this match-up it's so one-sided.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': This is a fairly balanced matchup depending on what you bring. Saurus Spears are the obvious pick here and try to avoid Skink units entirely unless you want to give the Gorgers free food. Carnosaurs with their anti-large are an obvious pick here and going for a Stegadon with or without a hero on the back is great for counterplay against Leadbelchers. The scariest thing Ogres can bring are Rhinoxes or their artillery. Essentially settle in for a large-on-large slugfest.

*'''Skaven''': An iconic matchup, the Skaven are everything the Lizardmen aren't. Massive hordes of cheap, cowardly cannon fodder will fill the ranks of many Skaven lists purely to get in the way of your Jurassic might and their rickety engines of war. Aside delaying the inevitable through piles of bodies, the ratmen have precious little in the way of durable front line units and will typically fall apart when thrown in the grinder. Rather, Skaven will rely on their wide array of artillery and arcane firearms to rain warpfire upon the hapless masses (friend and foe alike). Ratling Gunners are notorious for their ability to rapidly shred infantry, cavalry and monsters alike while their jezzails excel at picking apart single entity monsters, lords and heroes from halfway across the battlefield. Any frontline infantry you have you'll want shielded. In general, Skaven are modestly quick on their feet, so you'll want a selection of cavalry or skinks to catch up to and tie down their missile infantry. Chameleon Skinks are generally a strong pick against skaven due to their missile resistance and for once can do respectable damage due to the relative lack of armor in the Skaven roster. Skink Cohorts will typically win in a straight fight against Skaven Slaves or Clanrats, though against anything more elite you'll want Saurus or Kroxigors to deal with them. Your monsters will also have virtually free reign should they manage to make it into melee, though you'll want to ensure any artillery or missile infantry are well and truly tied down before you let them loose.

*'''Slaanesh''': Much like the Dark Elves, this matchup falls considerably in their favor. Speedy infantry, cavalry and chariots ''all'' packing AP damage makes a front line of Saurus undesirable. However, unlike the Dark Elves, Slaanesh [[/d/|comes]] up short in the ranged game; your Chameleon Skinks, Skink Skirmishers and even both Terradon Riders will prove quite valuable at whittling away Slaaneshi daemons, though exquisite care will be needed for your Skink infantry; even with poison debuffs, Slaaneshi units are ''damn'' fast and will still be able to chase down and tie up your Skinks without screening support. Other options include your trademark dinosaurs; despite packing AP damage, Slaanesh is not generally kitted with a diverse Anti-Large roster and may struggle trying to hold back your high-mass monsters from tearing through their ranks. When it comes to your Terradons, take a care. Slaanesh will usually pack some Furies to help defend the skies and though Furies won't win against any of your other monsters, your Terradons aren't most other monsters.

*'''Tomb Kings''': There's not a lot a basic skeleton army can do to the Lizardmen. Unit for unit, Saurus are just better and Skinks will be more maneuverable. An all-dino army can destroy Ushabti and higher-tier units with ease, provided you've picked the right dinos (Stegadons). However, this is not a reason to be complacent - the Tomb Kings roster has some very deadly Anti-Large AP units on their roster that will make very short work of your dinos. Of particular note are the Ushabti Greatbows and Necrosphinx; the former are dedicated monster snipers and the latter is absolute murder against other single-entity monsters. Try to mob these units with your infantry or try to make them irrelevant with magic, because the high innate armor and mass these units naturally have will mean they can and will be able to move around the battlefield with impunity.

*'''Tzeentch''': The key against Tzeentch is to get into melee quick and hold their units in place; Tzeentch daemons, even with their Protoss-like shields, aren't built for combat and will either try to do all their work at range (something you ''desperately'' will not want to combat them at) or by cycle charging before you get a chance to crack their shields. This is one of the rare matchups your Cold One Riders can actually excel at; they're rather decent in combat and can engage the enemy far sooner than your standard Saurus or Skinks can (and will likely/hopefully suffer less casualties for it). Additionally, Chameleon Stalkers can safely sneak up to vulnerable flanks; open up with a rather explosive burst of their own and start chewing through Horrors before they get much opportunity to return fire. Try not to contest the skies if you can, though Ripperdactyls will likely best most of the units they'd be fighting in the skies... they'll be outnumbered substantially ''and'' move much more slowly. They'll be lit up far before they can ever catch up to anything.

*'''Vampire Coast''': In terms of punching through these undeads' lines they're even easier than their Vampire Counts brothers with very little in the way of durable infantry to hold back your Saurus killing machines. Where you will have to watch out is their ranged units - they have one of the cheapest gunlines in the game and it's even harder to break open their protectors because they're all undead and can't run. Their monsters will tarpit your dinos but rarely kill them, but without proper maneuvering you will be munching on polearm zombies all day while their undead musketeers and cannons fuck you up. Abuse magic hard and don't let them bog down your dinos, keep them constantly rolling through the zombies until you can trample over their gunners. Be very wary about Necrofex Colossi, not only can they kite your dinos but they can also put substantial hurt on them if not checked quickly.

*'''Vampire Counts''': If there's any faction in the game more stunted in the range-game, it's the Vampire Counts. Hordes upon hordes of meat-shields often form the rank and file of many undead lists while the lords and heroes do all the heavy lifting. You'll want to avoid clumping your units up or getting bogged down by the fodder, as a single Winds of Death can delete your entire frontline if you allow it. Kroxigors will make short work of any infantry the Vampire Counts send your way and Sacred Kroxigors in particular are extremely valuable against the ethereal units that might otherwise threaten your physical forces. Additionally, Skink Skirmishers will prove a frustrating thorn in your opponents side as they kite any non-cav across the field and back. Typically you'll want to focus on bringing down any characters the Vampire Counts field, as they quite literally hold the army together. Without their leadership and magic support, many of the undead will quickly crumble against the might of your superior soldiers. Fire damage is particularly useful in this regard, so Salamander Hunting Packs, Ancient Salamanders, Solar Engines and Fire Slann can quickly incinerate many of these lords and heroes (in the case of the Slann, they are also fantastic at dealing with ethereal heroes).

*'''Daemons of Chaos''': Expect to see a roster comprising mostly of Slaanesh and Tzeentch daemons. If this is the case, you're in for a rough one. If your opponent decided to focus on Khorne or Nurgle forces... well, hopefully you enjoy the borderline free win. Regardless, this can be a tricky matchup to properly plan for, so just try to take a balanced list. With a slight focus against Tzeentch/Slaanesh, of course.

*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction almost devoid of ranged options, the Warriors of Chaos is almost dedicated to advancing a wall of steel and meat from one end of the map to the other. Many of their units are armored and/or shielded and as such, armor-piercing units will be your friend against them. Take a few units of Saurus (Spears) to hold their units in place while you have some Red-Crested Skinks chip away at them. Spears are strongly suggested due to the relative abundance of large/monstrous units within their roster; they might not win against them, but your spears will go down fighting much harder than your regular warriors would. Take a unit or two of Ripperdactyls to shut down any Hellcannons they might've brought to the table. Take no half-measures with them either; they're unbreakable so you ''will'' need to completely wipe them out if you don't want to be bombarded the entire match. Otherwise, some (Sacred) Kroxigors, Razordons and Stegadons are fantastic damage dealers and a Skink Priest of Heavens or a Fire Slann can delete large chunks of their infantry at a time with proper placement and timing.

*'''Wood Elves''': Wood Elves are a flighty foe and one of the hardest for your army to actually pin down. Their relatively cheap access to long-ranged anti-armor missile infantry will pose a massive pain in the ass and their basic frontline infantry, the Eternal Guard, can hold their own surprisingly well against your monsters, courtesy of their spears. In a rare twist, a front line of Skink Cohorts will prove more effective than your Saurus against Wood Elves; they're quicker still than many elven infantry options and can further hinder their combat effectiveness thanks to their poison. Chameleon Skinks will prove invaluable at harassing enemy archers and can kite a majority of their infantry with relative ease. Now when it comes to dealing with their tree units, I have one word for you. Fire. (Ancient) Salamanders can deal with Dryads, Tree Kin and Treemen with laughable ease and will prove just as effective at dealing with the rest of the Wood Elf roster, though you'll absolutely want a contingent or two of Saurus Spears to screen against Wild Riders. Wood Elves are also a rare instance of being a faction with ''less'' artillery than you (hint, they have none). Solar Engine bastilidons can heavily discourage their archers from setting up and will do bonus damage to any tree units they shoot. Lastly, many Wood Elf units are capable of vanguard deployment; keep an eye on your surroundings once the battle starts to ensure you aren't caught unawares.

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''S/S-'''

Though you aren't the undisputed king of Domination, Lizardmen are absolutely positioned as one of the top factions for this game mode currently. A very flexible faction with many options, you have excellent early game presence in the form of skinks. Your quick-footed infantry chaff will easily contest objectives due to their higher capture weight compared to the expendable chaff infantry other factions might field and will have a much easier time getting to them shortly after the game begins. Particularly any of the skirmishing variety that you vanguard deployed. Speaking of, Chameleon Stalkers/Skinks are still excellent skirmishers and harassers who can dive in and disrupt outlying forces, making objective contesting a painful nuisance for ill-equipped foes. When it comes to holding the line, your Saurus infantry is as durable as ever. When supported by regular Skinks, it will take a concentrated effort if not a full hard counter in order to shift your forces off of an objective. This is made even more challenging due to your rather plentiful healing options; Life Slann, Skink Oracles and even Revivification Bastilidons are fantastic for keeping your forces in the fight. Even more so if further supported by any Slann's Ward save nope-bubble that they can plant down on any objective to thoroughly lock it down. This isn't even really getting into your single entity beat-sticks; Kroq-Gar can prove the equal of lords such as Be'lakor with the right support and Lord Kroak can still Deliverance of Itza hard enough to evaporate enemy blobs with frightening ease.

At the end of the day, your sheer versatility affords you ''far'' more flexibility in dealing with the highly varied factions you'll be facing while still being able to focus on defending objectives. Yes, there are still some factions you'll generally struggle to deal with, but you will at least have a couple tools to handle them while you hold your ground. This is something some of the other factions (like the Dwarfs or Vampire Coast) cannot quite claim.

A particular note, if you're going up against one of the other top-tier factions in this game mode, such as Nurgle or Vampire Counts, bring fire. A Salamander Hunting Pack or two, a Fire Slann and ''maybe'' a Fireleech Bolas Terradon Rider can more efficiently stymie those factions regenerative strengths while further exploiting their innate flammability. A Burning Head or Firestorm will incinerate most of their blobs while dealing moderately little to your armored Saurus lines while Salamanders will also prove quite potent against the larger monsters/chariots supporting them.

===Campaign Strategies===
In the campaign, be it the Vortex or Mortal Empires, the biggest concern Lizardmen have is obtaining a consistent source of income; Skinks will only carry you so far in the early game and sacking settlements will only provide a quick short-term boost to your treasury. Your economy generally lacks bonuses, especially compared to other Warhammer 2 factions, though you won't be as constrained as, say, Wood Elves or Beastmen, and expanding the Geomantic Web and getting upkeep reduction skills will go a long, long way. As such, if you aren't playing as Hexoatl, it is imperative to get the city as soon as possible for its landmark, which reduces upkeep on the Lizardmen's most powerful units. Most other landmark buildings add some bonus to several unit chains, such as additional damage for Skinks or more defense for Saurus Warriors.

Lizardmen research is locked behind building completion; many important technologies cannot be accessed until a specific, often mediocre in mid-early game, building is built in one of your settlements. Generally speaking, it is better to unlock research to start improving your weaker units rather than focus on your economy in the early- to mid-game. You simply won't be generating much revenue from economy buildings until the Geomantic Web is expanded and upkeep is reduced. However, that also means you need to be smart about what buildings to construct in your limited settlements; depending on how much money you have coming in through battles and sacking, it may be worth it to construct something just to unlock research and then destroy it to make room for something you genuinely need.

Despite Skinks being largely cannon fodder after turn 75, the Skink Spawning Pool building should be built in every minor settlement so that you can hire as many Skink Chief heroes as possible. Not only are they the faction assassins, which help Lizardmen remove otherwise troublesome heroes that would be difficult to snipe on the battlefield, they can all get Stegadon or Ancient Stegadon mounts. These are functionally equivalent to the generic version but come with extended range and bonuses to damage. It is possible to have two full armies of just Skink Chiefs by the Chaos invasion, if you so wish, and it is even more OP than the standard dinostack. Skink Priests also have access to these mounts, but increasing their recruiting slots is much more difficult.

Once you start becoming established and have a few provinces under your belt, it is imperative to begin constructing Star Chambers in every province you can afford to do so. Each Star Chamber boosts the starting rank of all newly recruited Slann Mage-Priests by 3 levels and all new heroes by 2. Yes, this stacks all the way up so that you can recruit max level Slann every 10 turns. Each Star Chamber also offers a small but lucrative bonus to all income for the whole Province, which helps to address your stone-age economy and extends enemy sieges by an extra 3 turns, potentially granting you just enough time to save the city should it fall under attack.

===Mortal Empires/Vortex===
With the advent of Immortal Empires in the third game, this will admittedly feel like a lackluster experience compared to it. Having said that, if you feel like sticking to the "OG" experience or don't quite want to pick up game III yet, here are some tips and tricks. In general, if you're starting as one of the factions starting on your home turf of Lustria, you're going to feel quite cramped.

====Mazdamundi====
*'''City of the Sun''' - Big boss Mazdamundi starts with a couple nice things going for him; As the proud owner of Hexoatl, late game Dino-Doomstacks can become particularly affordable. Additionally, he can expand south relatively freely due to a province's worth of abandoned settlements ripe for the plundering/taking. Not everything is as bright as his city's namesake suggests; A permanent -10 diplomatic penalty to all Non-Lizardmen factions can make diplomacy somewhat problematic. This is exacerbated by the fact that Mazda starts directly south of the Dark Elves and has a cluster of aggressive Vampire Coast and lizard-hating Empire colonists barring his access to the rest of Lustria. After you secure your initial holdings, you should weigh your options carefully then commit to eradicating one threat at a time if you can help it. Wiping out Morathi's Dark Elves is the more challenging prospect; their abundance of Armor Piercing weaponry (melee and ranged) can make early game excursions north particularly brutal. This is made worse by the climate incompatibilities, where growth and replenishment are dramatically hindered. On the other hand, Morathi's capital city does provide some rather significant bonuses to your research, income and public order (reduction of penalties from corruption). Should you choose to go south, you'll have a much easier time and will be able to meet up with several other Lizardmen factions you can trade/confederate with.

====Kroq-Gar====
*'''The Last Defender''' - Starting in the ass-crack of the southeast, Kroq-Gar has a bit of a rough start. His only legendary lord neighbor, Tiktaq'to, is still a veritable hike through Vampire/Tomb King infested deserts and Skaven/Ork-filled mountains. You do have two other generic Lizardmen factions nearby, but they often get wiped out within the first 20 turns by either Vampires, Tomb Kings or Malus Darkblade, if you don't do the job for them. To get to the rest of your Lizard brethren (who actually matter), you're going to have to carve a path of bloody carnage across the literal length of the map. There are a couple of ways to go about it, however. If you focus your efforts, you can shove off the coast above your capital city and take the Dragon Isles province directly to the north. If you head north quickly, you can snag a veritable batch of handy Legendary Lord traits that'll turn Kroq-Gar into a particularly potent duelist and secure a number of relatively isolated, defendable provinces before you press westward. If you'd rather focus on pressing west initially... prepare for the long haul. You'll want to keep a banner army stationed either in Charnel Valley (where Clan Mors starts) or in Devil's Backbone (where the Court of Lybaras starts) to help defend against Ork or potential Dark Elf incursions.

====Tehenhauin====
*'''Lllllet's get ready to RUMBLE!''' - Brace yourself, you're deep in the Lustria-Bowl. Tehenhauin has the roughest start of all your lords, even including Horde-faction Nakai; though he has one potential ally to his immediate south, he has Vampire Coast, Dark Elves, Skaven and expansionist Empire folk surrounding him on all sides. Worse, you're effectively stuck with Skinks for infantry until you can make progress on your Skaven genocide quest. To this end, you're going to want to either focus on pumping out a flood of Skinks or focus on building your Beast Lairs to try to pump out some monstrous units to compensate for your lack of early-game muscle. Taking out the Vampire Coast first is strongly recommended, as not only do they spread vampiric corruption, but all of their settlements will provide you with valuable ports. From there, you can put the screws to the Dark Elves and Skaven to the south and claim some valuable land and sacrifices for Sotek.

====Tiktaq'to====
* Perhaps the most... bland campaign, Tiktaq'to just kind of exists in the middle of the Southlands, caught between some Tomb Kings, a random Empire faction and a fair few crusading Bretonnians. If you want, you can focus on allying with the Tomb Kings initially. They can provide a reasonable source of Trade income and provide a buffer against the burgeoning Greenskin-tide while you clean up the Bretonnians and Empire. Additionally, if you focus on sweeping east, you can get a solid point of entry into Lustria.

====Gor-Rok====
*'''The world is your Itza''' - Despite being solidly in the Lustria-Bowl and being a Saurus-dedicated, exclusive footlord, Gor-Rok is basically guaranteed supremacy due to beginning the game with Lord Kroak ''and'' starting with Itza as his capitol. Tehenhauin will often end up confederating with you pretty early and without much fuss due to the various Lustria-Bowl contenders beating the piss out of him. You'll likely want to focus your initial expansion down south to clear out the Skaven and secure the various resources found on the southeast coastline before pushing north to clear out the Vampires. Once you control the majority of Lustria, you effectively have free reign to set your sights anywhere you feel like conquering.

====Nakai====
* Formerly the most wayward of the Children of the Old Ones, Nakai's start in Albion effectively tries to throw you against the forces of Norsca for a majority of your early-mid game. After some research, he's admittedly geared for it; natural Snow and Chaos Attrition immunity courtesy of your unique tech tree grants Nakai a lot more flexibility for engaging the northern Chaos factions and despite not controlling any of the settlements he captures, the Defenders of the Great Plan generate a ''ton'' of Untainted corruption. Though this won't really benefit you personally much, your allies (or fellow players on Co-Op campaigns) will find traversing the north considerably less threatening. Having said that, due to being a Horde faction, you're perfectly free to just abandon Albion entirely and find new stomping grounds to start your Campaign in.
In Immortal Empires he's even more lost, starting in fucking Cathay. But he does get a proper Stegadon as a starting unit so that's a big bonus

====Oxyotl====
*'''Deep in enemy territory''' - Aside Nakai and ''potentially'' Tehenhauin, Oxyotl has the most unique (and arguably best) Campaign. His initial start is a bit rough, being awkwardly sandwiched in the far north between the rapidly confederating Dark Elves to the west and the pugnacious Norscans to the east. Though his universal climate habitability is a (necessary) godsend, he'll find it somewhat difficult to defend and expand his home territory. If you can, try to focus down the Dark Elves once you secure your home province. Oxyotl's particular playstyle actually counters Dark Elves to a degree and if you can nip Malekith in the bud before he confederates the rest of his misbegotten kind, you can spare yourself a late-game headache and get a hell of an infrastructure set up with all the unique building chains found in Naggarond. Just make sure you keep a couple standing armies in the region for the Chaos Invasion.
*'''Don't neglect your missions''' - This is because, unless you want to get constant debuffs, buff random enemy armies into the stratosphere or cause the Chaos Invasion to happen way ahead of schedule, Oxyotl's army is going to be consistently busy warping around the map doing missions rather than naturally expanding your home territory. He can warp back to the capitol and any one Silent Sanctum of your choosing freely (which you can establish in any settlement you've laid eyes upon at least once), but only once per turn and he does not regain any of the movement/actions spent prior to the warp. However, many of the missions Oxyotl needs to undertake often involves him razing or capturing enemy settlements, so you'll often find yourself with various holdouts sprinkled across the map. Just make sure that you get a banner army or two to defend your capitol if you can help it; things get ''extremely'' messy once the Chaos Invasion starts.
*'''Your Silent Sanctums''' - Your other unique mechanic is a game-changer for the Lizardmen. Functionally, they're similar to Skaven Undercities; you can construct unique buildings to benefit any of your forces within the Region it was established, as well as any other regions neighboring it. This can include granting your forces permanent vision on everything within those regions, a flat 20% upkeep reduction for all of your forces within the area or even a random chance to deal damage to enemy forces happening by. Whenever you amass 8 gems, you can construct a Silent Sanctum in any settlement any of your characters have personally seen. One key function truly unique to Oxyotl is that you can actually construct a building that allows Oxyotl's army to teleport there at will. You can literally teleport a full Stegadon doomstack right next to an enemy faction's capitol city if you so desire. Suffice to say, Silent Sanctums are extremely useful and worth investing in.
*'''Take Albion!''' - If you can afford the excursion, send Oxyotl or a generic banner army south to Albion and claim it. Several unique buildings in Konquata provide rather substantial financial boons and, especially when coupled with a specially kitted out Silent Sanctum, can serve as a rapid recruitment center for your efforts in the Old World. You're the only Lizardmen faction within a reasonable distance who can actually make use of these unique buildings and an early capture can prove to be a rather profitable investment for your economy.

===Immortal Empires===
It's here, the biggest Total War map to date, spanning effectively the entire Old World and then some (only a few less than fleshed out regions such as Nippon are excluded). The Lustriabowl has for the most part calmed down, a majority of the non-lizardmen factions have set sail for greener pastures and with the inclusion of the entire southern half of the continent, what factions that remain now have some breathing room. Having said that, this season, it's time for the Southlands Thunderdome to kick off! While Gor-Rok and Tehenhauin can breathe a sigh of relief, Kroq-Gar and Tiktaq'to are now sandwiched in with factions from damn near every walk of (un)life; Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Daemons of Khorne and Tzeentch, Dwarfs, Orks, Skaven, High Elves, Empire, Bretonnians, the list goes ON.

If you're playing as Gor-Rok, Tehenhauin or even Mazdamundi, don't get too comfortable in Lustria however. Dark Elves in the form of Rakarth have set up shop on the western coast of Lustria, Clan Pestilens has borderline free reign of the south-eastern coastline, Markus Wulfhart continues his colonial ways in northern Lustria alongside his new-found Bretonnian buddy Alberic. The Vampire Coast is, in fact, still infested with the Vampire Coast and a few rogue factions of daemons muck about in central Lustria. Though it won't be ''quite'' as chaotic as before, given the extra breathing room, you'll still need to remain vigilant if you want to kick all the warm-bloods out of your homeland.

One notable change is the Rite of Awakening; it no longer costs any gold to use, so once you unlock it, there's ''no'' reason to not immediately use it to spawn in a Slann for your recruitment pool. Enact that shit every single time it pops off cooldown.

====Kroq-Gar====
*'''Scar-Veteran Doomstack Simulator''': Kroq-Gar probably got the biggest buff/change transitioning from Mortal Empires to Immortal Empires among lizardmen. The first notable perk is that his faction has been ''heavily'' re-tooled to focus on Saurus; specifically Old-Bloods and Scar-Veterans. Faction wide, Saurus Spawning pools now grant additional perks beyond the ability to recruit Saurus units and, at 4th tier, will grant an additional +2 recruit rank for Scar-Veterans. This stacks with both the Humble trait and Star Chambers (which now, unfortunately, can only be constructed in province capitals), letting you ''very'' quickly start cranking out high-ranking Scar-Veterans on Carnosaurs. If that weren't enough, all Scar-Veterans and Old-Bloods gain a 30% boost to experience gain and get an extra 1% Weapon Strength per rank they have (capping out at a [[/d/|+50% weapon strength buff at max level]]). The Last Defenders did lose their universal -10% upkeep discounts, but it's slightly made up for since Old-Bloods gain a -15% Upkeep reduction for their banner armies, encouraging you to run them as Lords for your more expensive doomstacks. Though by no means should you forsake taking a Slann here and there.

:Kroq-Gar himself downgraded some of his personal buffs, comparatively. Gone are the leadership and armor buffs for Stegadons, Bastiladons, Terradons and Carnosaurs. Instead, Saurus and Cold-One Riders gain a 25% experience gain buff and his former -50% upkeep reduction for Saurus and Cold One units has simply dropped down to the fairly standard -15% universal upkeep reduction all his Old-Blood units get. Much more versatile than before, though.

:Speaking of the scaly lizard, he starts on the eastern coast of the Southlands, smack dab above Teclis (for now). Teclis makes for a decent defensive ally if you so wish and a valuable buffer against the southern Chaos forces such as Kairos. Almost invariably, you're going to be forced upwards in your wars; smaller Skaven infest the Kingdom of Beasts province and Khalida is often prone to declaring war against you once you work your way north. Immediately following Khalida, you'll likely draw the ire of Clan Mors and be drawn straight into the Karak Eight-Peaks race, oddly enough.

:Should you sail northeast, you can evict Ku'gath from the Dragon Isles for a nice footstep into southern Grand Cathay and the Darklands. Anyone who's played enough of Mortal Empires might be so inspired for a fresh change of scenery.

:Heading directly west to meet up with your lizard brethren is also far more tenable, now that you don't need to fight your way through an entire desert's worth of Tomb Kings. You'll still need to secure your starting province, but as the Golden Tower now stands as a convenient mountain pass, you can meet and greet Tiktaq'to extremely early in the campaign. His starting region offers a nice launching point into your ancestral home, where you can ideally encounter Tehenhauin clinging to life on the bottom cape of Lustria. Should you wish to actually expand there for all the unique buildings and legendary lords ripe for confederation, you'll need to make sure you don't neglect your Southlands homelands.

====Mazdamundi====
*'''Immortal Empires''' - Probably the biggest change from TWWH2 is the expansion of Lustria and the separation of North and South <s>America</s> Lustria. Warhammer Mexico has been tweaked a little bit, with Skeggi and the coast being their own province. Skeggi is more challenging now since they can spam Marauder Champions, meaning you'll be tied up with them a bit more than before.
**Cylostra is now further north, next to Alith Anar, but you'll still have to deal with Rakarth, Wulfhart, Bordelaux, and of course, the Awakened. Most of these guys, and especially Rakarth, are packing lots of anti-Large, so you'll want to plan your armies ahead: Carnosaurs and Temple Guard can deal with Rakarth, but you'll want some artillery to deal with Wulfhart.
**North of Hexoatl is still the same clusterfuck, and you'll want to appease the Sisters of Twilight so that you're not dealing with a war on two fronts; their AI is stupidly annoying, and they will break non-aggression pacts with you if your relations hover even slightly above neutral. This anon recommends trading any settlements that you capture from Morathi to them in exchange for a fee, which can net you 7-8k in gold and some goodwill. Any settlement north of the Fallen Gates is useless to you anyway, and because Wood Elves have terrible settlement defense, as soon as Morathi takes them back, you can do it all over again and farm gold, allegiance, and positive relations.

====Tehenhauin====
The Cult of Sotek got a minor buff with the reworking of their sacrificial pyramid. Regiments of Renown now unlock normally, while sacrifices can be spent to acquire powerful Blessed units. In addition, the updated character UI makes swapping Tehenhauin's unique banners and ancillaries very convenient and a little more useful.

Tehenhauin starts in the southwest corner of Lustria and will need to move fast to prevent Rakarth and Lord Skrolk from getting too established. Generally, Skrolk will expand further and faster, taking most of southern Lustria from the minor faction to your east. Rakarth will have few targets for expansion and will declare war on you fairly early, whereas Skrolk will ignore you until he completes his conquest. However, Skrolk is likely to be easier to defeat early on and taking his territories will give Tehenhauin some safe territory to develop since Gor-Rok will be to your north and there's little to no chance the AI will cross the ocean from the Southlands. Then you can build up the resources you need to defeat Rakarth armies of darkshards and spearmen, which are far more difficult for Tehenhauin's early-game armies to deal with. Humble heroes and skink chiefs on stegadons can be very useful at that point.

Once these two threats are dealt with, it's up to you whether you'll finish off the remaining minor factions in Lustria (Spine of Sotek Dwarfs, Tower of Dusk, Bordeleaux Errants, Luthor Harkon) or ally with them to get some unit variety. If you head north, Markus Wulfhart still can't be negotiated with and you'll have to destroy him if you want to reach Hexoatl. You may find it more interesting to head east and reach <s>the Southlands</s> Mordor, where Tiktaqto and Kroq-gar should be clinging to life as the Vermintide bears down on them. But be wary; heading to the Southlands means you'll likely meet Kairos and will need to deal with Changing of the Ways if you don't finish him off. Luckily, his defeat trait is useful for Tehenhauin.

Alternatively, using the new sea lanes will bring you to Grand Cathay and Nakai the Wanderer. Most of the territory available will be yellow, whereas Lustrian and Southlands territories are green, but the areas of Cathay you can conquer/confederate will be almost completely secure from future attack as long as you maintain good relations with Zhao Ming and Meow Ying. Nakai tends to be fairly easy to confederate once you've gotten 3 or more armies, and while he's not a stellar legendary lord he is one of the best fighters available to the lizardmen.

Tehenhauin can meet Oxyotl very early in the campaign, however all of Oxyotl's territory will be red. It's probably better to leave him independent rather than confederate him, as the AI cheats will allow him to defeat all the Chaos factions in the Southern Chaos Wastes far more easily than the player can, and none of that territory is worth anything to the Cult of Sotek. Of course, this could all be a moot point considering how hard it is to confederate Lizardmen in general.

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