Tips for playing Lokhir Fellheart?

[ikko]

I've heard people claim he's a beast but I don't understand how to optimize his roster. Black ark corsairs with or without handbows don't seem to make a very good doomstack. What am I missing here. What should I be doing with army composition and what should I be doing on the campaign, is the strategy to go deep into the heart of Cathay via the rivers and just raze and loot places? Or am I supposed to be capturing and holding territory

[A.Pot]

You are gonna find yourself surrounded by enemies so it will be best to play cautiously and focus on walling up your towns first before expanding. Handbow Corsairs are best used as a hit and run unit while Dual Sword Corsairs should still be used as flankers. Use their speed to get around the enemy and hit them on the flanks or rear while using something like a big monster to charge in first or to break lines,

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Corsairs are mid-tier units. I don't remember my Lokhir-Fu all that well (been a hot minute since Derp Elves felt like a worthwhile play), but you should be able to get some extra mileage out of them compared to other LL's.

Personally, I'd recommend not deviating from the Derp Elf formula too much: Use whatever melee infantry is most cost effective to hold the line and use Darkshards (and later shades/preferred cavalry/monsters) to dish out the damage.

As for expansion strategies:
You have a coast line in the east of Cathay that's fairly easy to wrest from the Vampirates, though you may want to leave Nakai alone early on. The interior of Cathay is highly accessible due to the navigable river that lets you use Black Ark support for the majority of the eastern, southern, and central regions of Cathay.

You also, if you so choose, have sea lanes on the east edge of the map that give you access to Lustria, the Southern Chaos Wastes, and (if you have time) Ulthuan and the Southlands. If you'd rather fight Lizards and/or Chaos than Cathay, those are options once your starting province is secure.

[Laughing Man]

YMMV:

I haven't tried Lokhir yet, in III,

In II, I often only ran corsairs on Lokhir, and use the handbows to encircle and/or kite. Found it micro heavy but generally devastating. A couple of bolt throwers and a decent, high mobility shadow wizard was a must.

Other lords I ran a spear (cheap) tar pit and shades for the flank n' gank.

Campaign wise, Lokhir got some sick buffs to sacking, so the sooner I could get in mobile and plundering the coast, the better. Upset factions however you wish once you get your Ark upgraded, you can take the show on the road and keep going. Cherry pick the high value provinces you want/need and don't conquer sub optimal locations. His start in II was probably better for this than the current setup, but I'm just guessing as haven't tried yet.

Mobility felt important, put down too many roots and it's more to defend/headache as I pretty much raided every faction I could reach within a turn of movement from the coast, roughly your Ark's barrage/replenish range.

[ikko]

Okay I'm going to try to role play a reaving/raiding campaign. After securing my starting province I will leave it to go in-land via the river system. I think the first quest for Lokhir's Red Blades requires you to capture a city that's in-land anyway so that's a good start.

I will not attempt to hold or defend territory, I will just try to sack/raze my way through Cathay

[Aluminum Elite Master]

In TW:WH3 right now, it's incredibly easy to play as Fellheart.

So, he starts in the far east portion of the map, fighting against Vampire Coast stacks that are rather weak. He buffs corsairs, and you can get darkshards right away, so his opening roster pretty much will annihilate whatever you choose to fight.

Moreover, his economy is incredibly powerful.

His victory conditions prioritize not exactly going far inland... and don't take Karond Kar, it's on the opposite side of the entire world (though sea lanes can get you back and forth fast) and at the mercy of Elith Anar or whatever who will be hostile and immediately DoW if you take it.

So just follow the riverine system, keep your unique Black Ark with Fellheart, and win.

It's seriously the easiest campaign right now IMO.

[ikko]

This campaign failed for me; I never could get the hang of playing Lokhir Fellheart. His corsair "doomstack" is just not good...or maybe I'm just bad at using it properly.

[identity]

Play them like any other dark elf. You don't need to use corsairs. His best bonus is his extra black arks, cheap stacks of units to scour the ocean for POI's.

[identity]

Handbows are better than regular corsairs and can be a potent 19 unit army, you just need to make 3 lines and cycle the front out with the back if they start taking too much damage. You can't really autoresolve them, but that doesn't mean they're bad and can't win. The AI doesn't know how to handle massive ranged unit armies.

[ikko]

Originally posted by Cybran:

Originally posted by ikko:

This campaign failed for me; I never could get the hang of playing Lokhir Fellheart. His corsair "doomstack" is just not good...or maybe I'm just bad at using it properly.

You are correct, his Corsairs are a trap. Vanilla Darkshards are better than buffed Corsairs.

Then there's no point in playing Lokhir unless it's just for the start position.

[identity]

Originally posted by ikko:

Originally posted by Cybran:

You are correct, his Corsairs are a trap. Vanilla Darkshards are better than buffed Corsairs.

Then there's no point in playing Lokhir unless it's just for the start position.

Handbows are fine and have enough buffs to be a solid hybrid unit in his army. And you seem to have missed that his best bonus is his black arks, which makes him worth playing.