How to play Kislev?

[Ariel Soto]

Hey, everyone. I'm struggling a little bit with Kislev. I have always struggled with Kislev and Cathay. I can't seem to get the hang of them.

I usually play with Katarin, do Armored-Kossars/Tzar Guards in front, Ice Guard on back and then something else like cavalry/Little Groms/Bear riders/Elemental Bear, but I'm strugglng so bad against almost anything.

Any advices? I want to use Streltsi but I hate how they can't shoot on top of themselves like Dwarfs's Thunderers do.

[Bakeneko]

Raise more armies ASAP, and move around in pairs. Kossars and war sleds (with the upkeep reduction characters) are dirt cheap. With Kostaltyn i use streltsy as front line (with some patriarchs to break up enemy charge), they have okay melee stats to stand in first row and their line of sight is not blocked that way.

[Oderisson]

Originally posted by Ariel Soto:

Hey, everyone. I'm struggling a little bit with Kislev. I have always struggled with Kislev and Cathay. I can't seem to get the hang of them.

I usually play with Katarin, do Armored-Kossars/Tzar Guards in front, Ice Guard on back and then something else like cavalry/Little Groms/Bear riders/Elemental Bear, but I'm strugglng so bad against almost anything.

Any advices? I want to use Streltsi but I hate how they can't shoot on top of themselves like Dwarfs's Thunderers do.

press escape -> Go to main menu -> find differnt race.

Jokes aside kislev is getting a DLC in about 1,5 month. If You are not comfortable with them at the moment wait a bit since shortly You will have a whole new hero type, lord, and some units that may change the army composition and you will have to start from scratch.

WH3 races are at the beginning of their development cycle. They WILL lack options, and thus make them harder since they will have less correct ways to play.

For kislev I personally prefer streltsi as frontline and iceguard as backline. Grom is crap. Use alliance to get good arty mercenaries. I befriend Moulder or empire depending on the mood.

[Sn3z]

Strelski only make sense as a frontline, when you have a strong cavalry presence, you need 4 wings 2-4 dervishes and or 2-4 missile cavalry(think of those kinds of high numbers, 8 units of cavalry etc, since you want to overwhelm sides), if you have access to better units just use bears and gryhons instead, then strelski would be a good unit to use. The weaker cavalry in this setup basic/advanced can screen your better cavalry and attack missile units, whilst the shocks can hit backs of lines and better targets, make sure to retreat cavalry when the unbreakable pops so you don't lose the units.

Instead of moving to strelski just stay on AK's and behind have kossars archers, you can either replace the kossar archers with ice guard or with tzar guard or even a mixture. losing the back missile component is more tolerable if you have missile cavalry or sleds, so bear*heh* that in mind.

Use a patriach with the cavalry for casting either heal or 40 melee attack, I use the melee attack. Use ice magic to slow down units attacking your infantry, snow lepard also nice to move with your cavalry and you and peel them off to deal and chase weak characters.

CA need to change some things with Kislev recruitment, missile cavalry and wings and gryphons need moving basically down one lvl, and we need more missile cavalry, like cossack gunpowder themed.

[yuzhonglu]

Light War Sleds. Build only light war sleds and heroes with -30% upkeep reduction for light war sleds.

All other advice are lies designed to make you bad at Kislev.

[Who trains thy hands for war?]

All this talk of Streltsi front line, now I want to play Kislev

CA allergic to making glaive crossbowmen but this is basically the same thing, even have the flatter / less adjustable firing arc of real life crossbows

[dollars202]

I think your problem is you are using a very expensive army and could do better if you used a less expensive option. Use Armored kossars, the ones with shields and with greatswords about 5 each of those. Use a grom for artillery support and 2 bear rider units.Rest is normal kossars. As kislev you get those priests who give you lots and lots of regen so you should be doing good there. Once you get going you can replace the normal kossars for the Streltsi. Use a checkerboard pattern so all your units can shoot more of the bad guys, and once you get the stretsi use one in the middle front and 2 on each of the outside to burn any cav trying to flank. Any cav that does flank eat em with da bears. As this army is cheaper than the more expensive options out there run them in groups of 2 for best results.

[Ghost | Severage]

If somewhat in early game, only able to recruit streltsi and armored kossars, I just build the army like this:

8 armored kossars as frontline
6 streltsi
LL
Ice Mage
4 kossars

armored kossars as frontline, the kossars behind them and 3 streltsi on each side. The streltsi can pretty much kill any cav alone and when that's done and the main forces are engaged in melee, i just do a "U" form with the streltsi standing left and right and firing at will, killing everything.

That army comp (at least for me) kills 99% of every enemy army on VH/VH Legy/VH.

i honestly don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about Kislevs cav besides Little Groms and bear cav.

And as soon as you can build Ice guards, you switch out the kossars and armored kossars.

[SomeGuy1]

Originally posted by Ghost | Severage:

If somewhat in early game, only able to recruit streltsi and armored kossars, I just build the army like this:

8 armored kossars as frontline
6 streltsi
LL
Ice Mage
4 kossars

armored kossars as frontline, the kossars behind them and 3 streltsi on each side. The streltsi can pretty much kill any cav alone and when that's done and the main forces are engaged in melee, i just do a "U" form with the streltsi standing left and right and firing at will, killing everything.

That army comp (at least for me) kills 99% of every enemy army on VH/VH Legy/VH.

i honestly don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about Kislevs cav besides Little Groms and bear cav.

And as soon as you can build Ice guards, you switch out the kossars and armored kossars.

pretty much. I shuffle the ratios around a bit and include a Patriarch for increased replenishment, but otherwise yeah..
I guess the formation is more a checkerboard type thing with the streltsi at angles to shoot through the gaps in between my armored kossars, and the archers behind them. and then as things thin out I fan the streltsi around the flanks.

[SpeaksTooFast]

If using an infantry based army I like 2-4 Streltsi in my front line, possibly flanked by armored kossars. back them with regular kossars and 2ish lil groms. I found Ice Gurard were really useful in RoC due to primarily fighting demons but less so in IE as armor is more of a threat. A few units can still be useful but more as utility to stack slowing effects unless in Kat's army as she gets them cheaper.

Basic Kossar spam is also super effective early-mid game. Easy to recruit, if marching across the waste or vampire territory you can just merge units damaged by attrition and recruit more. They are by no means top tier and can struggle vs armor but punch up really well. A few lil groms to help deal with armor can make them a lot more versatile as well.

For my aggressive armies I just go heavy into bear cav. Lord, 5-6 priest heroes, 3 for healing, 2 for melee buff, possibly 1 for vigor, a caster and like 8 units of bear cav. Just roll the bear death ball over anything in front of it and they will chew through. 3 priests should be enough to get you close to the healing cap if you keep them together, with 2 melee buffing heroes you should have good up time on +40 MA and if you have one to keep them fresh they will have great sustain.

If you enjoy actually skirmishing light war sleds can be good, I find they are a bit micro intensive for my taste and they get damaged really easily in AR meaning you have to fight a lot of worthless battles but AP missiles combined with anti-infantry melee attacks means they match up well against most opposition and can win some really tough battles.

[Ariel Soto]

Thanks a lot, guys. I'll try a few comps you gave me here. Hard to restart the game since Chaos Dwarfs, Archaon, Norsca and Skaven where attacking me non-stop.

And Vlad was just behind me, but hadn't declared war on me. Yet.

[SomeGuy1]

make your second stack early, don't be afraid to field stacks that aren't all the way full.
kossars + armored kossars are cheap and very effective.
and research Pirate's Weapons very early on! it's extremely strong!