Starting a new Campaign as the Sisters of Twilight - Any pointers or tips?

[Fraktal]

I'm bad at this game, just an FYI.

[Vinnie DAngelo]

Move your pointer/cursor on and enemy and right click.

[Average Enjoyer]

Had half of the army hawk riders, melted any army in seconds because of their crazy op ability and u get to use it 2 times on each unit of them in a skill line that sisters have.

[Aegyssus]

Better start with Reikland and Karl Franz as leader. Is easier at normal settings but can get hard-ish at higher settings.
That way you will get better at this game.

Advice, add mods to enrich your game-play. My favorite is Radious, and there are many other mods that add or subtract stuff, cosmetic Lore wise, game-mechanics etc.

Warhammer is not written in stone, and CA does not hold a "Law" of what can or cannot be added.
As such CA respects the base material Warhammer 40k as inspirations and gives the tools to modify their base game.
Also CA works closely with some top modders to tweak, change and even innovate.

Thus mod to your heart content.

-

And stay away from all Abominations !
Are you a Human ? Then fight for the realm of Humans !
Death to the Heathen !

[Nylan]

For the first battle use the Sisters to soak up missile fire from the enemy lord. Have your hawk riders use Arrow of Kurnuos each on the shielded swordsmen, You will want your hero caster and spearmen int he woods. The WE casters get bonus power regen when in the woods, so always deploy her in trees when you can. Put the ranged units behind your spears int he trees.

After the initial volley from your Hawk Riders hits the sword units have them focus on the cavalry, though keep them out of range of the enemy lord. The lord can knock out a Hawk Rider model in one or two shots, keep them out of its range so you don't lose anyone. The cavalry should route about the time they find your forces in the trees. Send your great eagle to harass the enemy lord, but be ready to retreat it if the infantry try and save the lord. Have your ranged infantry move out from behind your spearmen to either draw enemy units away as they shoot them to pieces or shoot the enemy in the back as they try and engage your spearmen. Have the sisters switch to their anti infantry ammo and then target them and the Hawk Riders on the infantry as they either chase your ranger units or try and reach your infantry.

Lots of micro movement in that battle.. but you can do it with only some minor damage taken on the sisters themself. That damage won't matter, as after the fight you can forge their first item.. And get a Dreaming ring to recover the lost health in the following battle.

The second battle is just more of the same, one ranged infantry unit to keep your Hawk Riders out of the range of and several infantry to pick apart from afar. Let the sisters tank hits where you can, the ring can keep them topped off on health or refill them in any following battle. Battle should be a pushover, with no models killed on your side.

Once you have that first outpost i'd plop down the building that reduces recruit cost by half and reduces global recruit time. It's for that settlement region only (not province wide) but using that you can recruit on turn 2 both globally and locally and get 7 or so units in that one turn, and it's slightly cheaper to recruit each unit there compared to local recruitment at the Witchwood tree.

For turn 2 just step out of the settlement, enter encamp stance and move as far tot he East as you can. Then recruit as many ranged units as you can both globally and locally. Turn 3 just move to the edge of your territory and get more units. Turn 4 should be a rather large battle at the settlement to your NE, the enemy will march a force in to try and save it. Should be some terrain you can use to funnel the enemy into your archers. Deploy where the spears are out front but with a large gap between them, they just need to have their flanks protected by the terrain. Your archers go in double rows behind them, one big row doesn't work as well. Might need to use your Hawk riders volley to prod the enemy into charging you. Either fly forward a bit and wait for them to shuffle and bunch up to hit a clump or aim it at some of their Darkshards.

After that battle i'd suggest getting the Dreaming Cloak, reduces upkeep but also summons a ranged unit. You can either use them as fodder so your real army doesn't take the brunt of the enemy charges or summon it with your own forces as just another shooter.

The enemy capitol can be a bit tricky. There are several ways to go about it, most get pretty bloody if you try and fight them head on though. I like to put the two Deepwood Scouts on i think the North side of the map then my entire army to the South. The Deepwood Scouts can walk up to their sides wall and climb without being undetected, good for sneaking to a control point which will cause some havoc in the enemy army. For your main force deploy in the South and all the way to the West, but back out of the towers range. The AI always falls for this, lots of maps you can use this trick on.. See the gates by the towers the enemy hold? Not your destination. You want the gate to the East that is separated by a large chunk of unpassable terrain, longer way for the troops inside to go to defend it, so even with your infantry sticking to the Southern map edge to avoid tower fire you can get there and start entering before the enemy arrives to defend it. Just have the Sisters, Hawk Riders and Great Eagle smash the gate. Once the gate is down some cav should be trying to come and stop you. Eagle first on cavalry, then the Hawk Riders hit it from behind to help break it.

The enemy infantry will arrive about the time your guys have formed up inside. Shouldn't be too bad of losses for this battle.

By the time you have taken that capitol you should have met Khatep. He has no allied units you'd really want to bother recruiting, but you can swap him the first two territories you captured to get a Non Aggression Pact, Military Access and Trade Agreement. Might have to do one or two deals per turn, but the final piece will be swapping that third settlement to him for a Defensive Alliance. The Hearthlands (territory around your trees) can be hard to hold, but if an ally holds them it gives the same bonus as if you own it or it was razed. I'd swap those 3 off so Khatep holds 4 for you and take the one directly South of the tree to be your new recruiting center. The rats won't be too hard to beat.

When you get ready to start a second stack i'd go with a Life mage. The sisters have an office for life mages to reduce the winds cost of their basic spell, which once you put 2 points into gets down to 2 or 3 WoM to cast. Rather cheap and powerful, especially for helping hold out against hordes of lightly armored units. I usually go with a half stack of archers until i can start getting Tree-Kin and dryads to take advantage of the regeneration that office also gives.

Morathi will probably be your biggest issue once you have secured the alliance with Khatep. Though Taurox can be a pain as well, so you might want to take him out first. The Vampire Coast ghost woman is more of an annoyance, i ignore her until she takes over one of the Hearthlands from Khatep. Probably best off removing Taurox as that is only a few turns detour. I'd rather ignore Morathi after that, as the trees aroudn the world are where you want to be going, but she never really lets you do that. Seems like i was always forced to go South and give her lands to Mazdamundi.

[Fraktal]

Originally posted by Nylan:

For the first battle use the Sisters to soak up missile fire from the enemy lord. Have your hawk riders use Arrow of Kurnuos each on the shielded swordsmen, You will want your hero caster and spearmen int he woods. The WE casters get bonus power regen when in the woods, so always deploy her in trees when you can. Put the ranged units behind your spears int he trees.

After the initial volley from your Hawk Riders hits the sword units have them focus on the cavalry, though keep them out of range of the enemy lord. The lord can knock out a Hawk Rider model in one or two shots, keep them out of its range so you don't lose anyone. The cavalry should route about the time they find your forces in the trees. Send your great eagle to harass the enemy lord, but be ready to retreat it if the infantry try and save the lord. Have your ranged infantry move out from behind your spearmen to either draw enemy units away as they shoot them to pieces or shoot the enemy in the back as they try and engage your spearmen. Have the sisters switch to their anti infantry ammo and then target them and the Hawk Riders on the infantry as they either chase your ranger units or try and reach your infantry.

Lots of micro movement in that battle.. but you can do it with only some minor damage taken on the sisters themself. That damage won't matter, as after the fight you can forge their first item.. And get a Dreaming ring to recover the lost health in the following battle.

The second battle is just more of the same, one ranged infantry unit to keep your Hawk Riders out of the range of and several infantry to pick apart from afar. Let the sisters tank hits where you can, the ring can keep them topped off on health or refill them in any following battle. Battle should be a pushover, with no models killed on your side.

Once you have that first outpost i'd plop down the building that reduces recruit cost by half and reduces global recruit time. It's for that settlement region only (not province wide) but using that you can recruit on turn 2 both globally and locally and get 7 or so units in that one turn, and it's slightly cheaper to recruit each unit there compared to local recruitment at the Witchwood tree.

For turn 2 just step out of the settlement, enter encamp stance and move as far tot he East as you can. Then recruit as many ranged units as you can both globally and locally. Turn 3 just move to the edge of your territory and get more units. Turn 4 should be a rather large battle at the settlement to your NE, the enemy will march a force in to try and save it. Should be some terrain you can use to funnel the enemy into your archers. Deploy where the spears are out front but with a large gap between them, they just need to have their flanks protected by the terrain. Your archers go in double rows behind them, one big row doesn't work as well. Might need to use your Hawk riders volley to prod the enemy into charging you. Either fly forward a bit and wait for them to shuffle and bunch up to hit a clump or aim it at some of their Darkshards.

After that battle i'd suggest getting the Dreaming Cloak, reduces upkeep but also summons a ranged unit. You can either use them as fodder so your real army doesn't take the brunt of the enemy charges or summon it with your own forces as just another shooter.

The enemy capitol can be a bit tricky. There are several ways to go about it, most get pretty bloody if you try and fight them head on though. I like to put the two Deepwood Scouts on i think the North side of the map then my entire army to the South. The Deepwood Scouts can walk up to their sides wall and climb without being undetected, good for sneaking to a control point which will cause some havoc in the enemy army. For your main force deploy in the South and all the way to the West, but back out of the towers range. The AI always falls for this, lots of maps you can use this trick on.. See the gates by the towers the enemy hold? Not your destination. You want the gate to the East that is separated by a large chunk of unpassable terrain, longer way for the troops inside to go to defend it, so even with your infantry sticking to the Southern map edge to avoid tower fire you can get there and start entering before the enemy arrives to defend it. Just have the Sisters, Hawk Riders and Great Eagle smash the gate. Once the gate is down some cav should be trying to come and stop you. Eagle first on cavalry, then the Hawk Riders hit it from behind to help break it.

The enemy infantry will arrive about the time your guys have formed up inside. Shouldn't be too bad of losses for this battle.

By the time you have taken that capitol you should have met Khatep. He has no allied units you'd really want to bother recruiting, but you can swap him the first two territories you captured to get a Non Aggression Pact, Military Access and Trade Agreement. Might have to do one or two deals per turn, but the final piece will be swapping that third settlement to him for a Defensive Alliance. The Hearthlands (territory around your trees) can be hard to hold, but if an ally holds them it gives the same bonus as if you own it or it was razed. I'd swap those 3 off so Khatep holds 4 for you and take the one directly South of the tree to be your new recruiting center. The rats won't be too hard to beat.

When you get ready to start a second stack i'd go with a Life mage. The sisters have an office for life mages to reduce the winds cost of their basic spell, which once you put 2 points into gets down to 2 or 3 WoM to cast. Rather cheap and powerful, especially for helping hold out against hordes of lightly armored units. I usually go with a half stack of archers until i can start getting Tree-Kin and dryads to take advantage of the regeneration that office also gives.

Morathi will probably be your biggest issue once you have secured the alliance with Khatep. Though Taurox can be a pain as well, so you might want to take him out first. The Vampire Coast ghost woman is more of an annoyance, i ignore her until she takes over one of the Hearthlands from Khatep. Probably best off removing Taurox as that is only a few turns detour. I'd rather ignore Morathi after that, as the trees aroudn the world are where you want to be going, but she never really lets you do that. Seems like i was always forced to go South and give her lands to Mazdamundi.

Very detailed, thank you!

[MrSoul]

Originally posted by Samones Srauto Techno:

Had half of the army hawk riders, melted any army in seconds because of their crazy op ability and u get to use it 2 times on each unit of them in a skill line that sisters have.

this

[Dou B Jin]

Grab all the artifact you can from dave's basement it can boost your army significantly.

If you're every out numbered significantly and the enemy have artillery try fighting deep inside the woods gives you a huge advantage enemy will have way harder charging your archers down while your stag knights can pass through them just fine and delete the enemy calv.

Originally posted by Mr.Soul:

Originally posted by Samones Srauto Techno:

Had half of the army hawk riders, melted any army in seconds because of their crazy op ability and u get to use it 2 times on each unit of them in a skill line that sisters have.

this

Not anymore they removed the ability. It's now just an ammo upgrade.

Edit: wait did they change it back?

[Aleera]

Always have atleast 1 unit on the ground. As not to get the leadership debuff.

[Nylan]

Originally posted by Jin:

Grab all the artifact you can from dave's basement it can boost your army significantly.

If you're every out numbered significantly and the enemy have artillery try fighting deep inside the woods gives you a huge advantage enemy will have way harder charging your archers down while your stag knights can pass through them just fine and delete the enemy calv.

Originally posted by Mr.Soul:

this

Not anymore they removed the ability. It's now just an ammo upgrade.

Edit: wait did they change it back?

Hadn't seen it ever get changed (at least in the base game) into an ammo upgrade. They did in game 2 nerf it down to a single use with the sisters providing a factionwide upgrade to 2 uses.

[nopw]

Nylan gave some great detailed advice for the first few turns. I don't really have anything like that, just some general tips since I recently finished a Sisters campaign and had a blast.

If you don't have the Glade Captain hero, you should get it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/x2ba2o/til_glade_captains_exist_in_the_game/

Forge of Daith
- Sisters fighting will give you 1 favor of Daith per turn (until upgraded, then RNG might be 2 per battle). This is abuseable if you have two weak enemy settlements to sack alternately.
- Items are not Sisters Exclusive. Get them and put them on other lords or heroes as you need.
- Dreaming Ring - Healing on a unit with no need for winds is very powerful. Any lord or hero can equip.
- The Dragon's Breath blessing gives you an ability that punches a hole into walls during sieges. Enemy lords/heroes and units on the wall will get hurt or killed. You can also use this to allow your stalk(stealth) units to move in and capture key points quickly.
- You can reforge items that are only at their weakest form.
- You can equip then items on a lord go into battle then swap them out to another for a different battle elsewhere.
- Dreaming Cloak - Unlike most summons, the unit you get from this item doesn't decay. This makes it very good because it is a free unit per battle.
- Eagle Quiver - Reforged has Unending Volley ability which gives ammunition to a unit. This can be cheesy way to ensure victory against enemies that have no anti-air or fights where you have dealt with all the anti-air.
- Dragon Mask - Debuff is good but nothing to write home about but this item pays for itself. Most importantly reforged it is a lottery ticket when razing strong major settlements.

This isn't everything of course but whats the fun if you just read and don't play right?

A quick mention some ancillaries. Heroes and lords often auto equip them if you get them post battle. Some minor logic into them can go a long way.
-Hawk Companion - Boosts missile strength is better on lords and heroes that have missiles...
-Vaul's Anvil Smith - Boosts melee strength... has no real business on spellweavers unless you are have nothing else and a lot of spare Vauls Anvil Smiths or REAAAALLLY want the bit of armor it provides.
-Forest Spirit - This leadership debuff stacks if you have it on multiple heroes/lords. It makes it much easier to rout enemies or for some factions cause them to crumble.
-Wardancer Drummer - If you have no wardancers/blade singers and don't plan to put them in this army you can probably salvage these for a quick drop of cash.

Wood Elf stuff.
- Hide in trees. Fight in trees.dw
- Kite and kill. Engaging head on in the open should be last resort. Engage in trees where possible.
- If retreat is an option you can abuse it. Battle, retreat & re-fight tactics are available to everyone really but here it sort of feels easy and super cheesy. You can camp near the edge then try to use ammo and kill off their stronger units before retreating then fighting again. You regain used ammo and dead allies/enemies stay dead. You can hide in forest and use Dreaming Ring to top up your heroes lord as much as possible, unload all volleys of Kurnous then retreat and come back in stronger.
- Your army often does better on the field of battle than Autoresolve generally predicts but you still need to learn to judge for yourself what you are going up against.
- Protect your main trees. Your other small settlements are just outposts and don't worry too much about keeping them defended. Of course if an invading force is sweeping through towards you then you need to be prepared to answer but losing outposts are not the end of the world, their value, being held is not high. Don't be afraid to trade settlements to allies.
- High Elves are generally good allies to trade and fight with. Lizardmen are too. Tomb Kings and Dark Elves are a little harder. Bretonnians and Empire can be friendly but you might might want to fight a few. Dwarves... It is possible but IMO not worth the effort. Skaven will trade with you and ally with you and stab you in the back when they feel like it.
- You want to do some fights near your tree to help it grow towards 100 points then use the ritual of rebirth. This gives you an Amber for research, there are plenty of good researches to take and getting amber can be time consuming.
- You should leave some outposts around for recruitment. Global Recruitment cost reduce and time reduction is huge.
- Every Lord should work towards Open Branches (+1 Global Recruitment Slot).
- Every Lord can get upkeep reduction... Not exactly a priority because many of the skills are so useful but it is there.

The Pay Day Setup
- Lords with 3 points in Wonders of the Forest [30% raze income]
- Outpost with Sacrificial Grounds near wealthy enemy settlements. [50% raze income]
- Research: Ellianill, Lord of Destruction [10% raze income]
- Dragon Mask Reforged [100% raze income]
Late game when you have a few armies running around you can pass the dragon mask around too and make use of the timer on the reforge.


Thoughts on Lords
Glad Lords - Standard hybrid heroes. Not bad but not great. Can have good army buffs for archers such as the Talon of Kurnous trait that gives 15% missile range. While they are melee lords, you don't want them in the fight for too long or by themselves. If you're wondering why there are two tabs for Glade Lords I believe they are just for gender choice. (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
Ancient Tree Daddies - Imo low key some of the best generic lords. Tanky. Can slowly anti-infantry and even kill some armoured enemies for days. Few things will threaten them early on but they still need to be somewhat careful. Has a full lore of life kit and some interesting traits such as Murder of Spites - turning it into a Mortis Engine (has a passive that damages everything around it while in melee). These guys are expensive to recruit though especially early on but you get what you pay for, especially early on!
Spellweavers - These are your mages. Lores of Life/Shadow/Beast/Dark/High. Great mage lords honestly. They get fast eagle mounts, less tanky than dragons but smaller and more nimble to avoid missiles. All spellweaver lords can two casts of Dwellers Bellow as a bound skill which is kind of silly given how strong that spell can be against silly AI blobbing up.

All the lords are pretty good and can do well leading your armies. Picking the right one for the job will come with experience.

Battle:
- It gets easier with familiarity. Learn to prioritize high threats. Fast units. Units strong against your front line. Units that can deal a lot of damage etc.
- IMO. The trees is usually the best place to stand and fight. Some maps might have a good choke point or defensive position with high ground etc. However you get buffs when fighting in the forest for a lot (all?) of units. I think you get a flat 15% bonus to melee defense. The trees protects you from missiles and some spells as it'll block it outright due to collision.
- Healing can be just as important as damage spells. Maybe more so at times.
- Most (all?) your missile units can fire while moving. Use this when you need to. Your archers are not fast, run them early to preserve them or commit one to hold the line while the others do the work.
- Hawkriders have Volley of Kurnous when you play as Sisters of Twilight. A few volleys can delete some troublesome units.
- Hawkriders used to charge the back of enemies can be devastating. Don't be afraid to use them to save your front line. Try not to let them get tied down in prolonged fights on the ground, have them cycle charge.
- Skirmish and run while firing back to the forest is legit and you should do it.
- Your flying heroes can waste ammo/spells before they reach your units to help mitigate some damage.
- Prey of Anath Raema is incredibly useful for high threats that are fast.
- Just because you have huge missile range doesn't mean you should always fire at a distance. Missile travel time, target size, target movement and ammunition need to be considered. Ranged units have greater accuracy on closer enemies. If you're fighting a small tanky lord or hero and you know you need to focus fire, consider using Prey of Anath Raema to prevent the enemy from moving when it is closer than max range, make every bullet key and try not to waste ammo.

The Wood Elf roster of units are honestly all pretty good. I wouldn't build lots of low tier cav but otherwise most of the units have a purpose and pretty decent when used properly. Experiment and learn what works.

Early Game Threats.
Taurox can be a massive pain. Guaranteed to declare war on you at some point. He can ambush and prevent you from reclaiming settlements with his herdstone mechanic. He spreads undivided corruption meaning you will take attrition. He can recruit a full stack very quickly. The good news is that he can be easier in battle than he is in auto resolve, your archers out range and out damage his. His units have little armor and will go down fairly easily. If you leave him long enough Malekith generally kills him but that is like playing with fire since he walks around in ambush like state.

Dark Elves.
If you plan to expand and fight outside of your little area, you will probably end up fighting Morathi (South) and then later Malekith (North). Both of these factions tend to clean up their own enemies and will threaten you unless you choose to play nice with them. You do not want to be caught trying to defend against both at the same time unless you're already prepared for multi front wars.

Vampire Coast
Solasta might declare war on you fairly early. You can take the fight right back to her but there isn't a whole lot of worth in that. You expose yourself to a whole lot of other factions that will hate you (namely most chaos factions up north and some dark elves maybe). On the other hand, you could take the land and sell it to others such as Nagarythe.

Skaven.
There is a minor skaven faction around south of you. This is more so you're aware and don't get jumped by them. They are not a big threat however Skaven are the only close threat that can use the underway to run or rush towards your capital. A T2 settlement with a fresh lv1 Treeman lord can probably defend against them though, your tree garrison is pretty strong and the Treeman is solid early on.

Progression direction is up to you but if you fight the Dark Elves around your area I advise fighting Morathi and taking her out entirely. The lizardman faction can be trade partners and even defensive/military allies. There is a Norsca faction here and you can use fight them to confederate another Wood Elf faction via a quest.

Thats all I got. GLHF.