I'm insanely bad - Tips?

[Jade Succubus]

Gotta admit, I'm out of my element when it comes to games like Total War. I've invested five hours so far and it seems like I learned nothing from the tutorial.. It seems I never have enough resources to build any kind of army, and when I do I'm massively outclassed by low level AI in that time. Seems the first engagement is always my doom. I played the campaign with the High Elves up until the assistant stopped giving me clear directions, then promptly lost both my leaders and pounded ALT-F4 out of frustration.

Not to mention I have a REALLY hard time figuring out what race I want to play. After that I tried numerous other races and did phenomenally bad (I avoided picking armies that were listed as anything but Easy or Normal start).

From what little I played (and my general interest in MMOs etc.) I want to learn how to play the Vampires Coast & Tomb Kings content, but wrapping my head around the vampire's playstyle seemed like a nightmare for someone starting out.

The Tomb King stuff overall seemed easier to understand, but again... I had an especially hard time getting an army with the way their mechanics are set up.

If both of those are kind of "bad" for new players, I get it. I'm open to suggestions on what to play.

[Carog the Fat]

I play in slow motion and pause a lot I am not not interested in MP so i dont need to learn to micro.

tomb kings are fine early on it is about a line of infantry and then a line of archers your archers will do most damage then use any high damage charge units on the flanks/rear of the enemy. it is important to know what your lord is good spells can also turn a battle if used at the right moment.

Maybe go and watch some videos of people playing some battles to help you as who you are fighting also determines what your tactics should be

[Jade Succubus]

Yeah. One of my key issues I've found is I don't utilize cavalry properly. I get kited a lot. I also get into trouble with infantry chasing fleeing units only to have them group back up and fight me later once I've issued new orders.

The next thing on the list was to do more in-depth research in general, but I've been up for almost 24 hours, so watching tutorials etc. I'm kinda putting off until after I get some sleep.

[Sargeist]

No shame in playing on easy/easy (f if you aren't already) until you learn the ropes. Everyone was a newbie at one point. Tyrion is probably the easiest starting lord.

There's a Youtube channel called Partyelite with a comprehensive beginner's guide for Warhammer TW 1. I imagine most of it is applicable to game 2 though, so you might want to check it out to learn the basics.

[Chillum]

I would personally recommend watching youtubers while you play, I find that a lot of this game comes down to unit matchups which can be hard to pick up on at first.

Vcoast can be easy to pick up, the hardest thing you will find, especially as a new player, is figuring out how to place your gunpowder. Followed by getting used to how most of your units are designed to just mire theirs down. One of my favorite factions though. Though after saying this I am reminded that they have received a few nerfs since I've done a playthrough.

TK I have only played a few times. Free armies, but limited generals. Skeleton archers are useful early game, chariots when you can, ushtabi when you can.

[cb4n28]

So one thing to keep in mind is that TW: WH is one of the more complex TW games to master and probably the hardest to pick up for new players. Each faction has a different playstyle in the campaign and because so many units have special abilities there is potentially a lot more micromanaging during battles depending on your army composition as you are trying to cast spells and use buffs and bombardments and cycle charges and stuff all at the same time.

That said, the relative complexity makes this one of the most rewarding TW games as you start to get into it. The basic concept of Total War is essentially rock paper scissors set up (originally swords beat spears, spears beat horses and horses beat swords) and that extends into this game to a large extent but it's just a lot more complex. There are different broad classes of units that are weak against certain other classes of units and strong against others. So mounted units, chariots and monsterous units are considered "large" and can be countered with units with the "anti-large" trait (usually infantry units with spears or other polearm weapons, but not always so you have to check the unit cards as you get used to your army). At the same time, "large" units are generally strong against infantry and ranged units without that "anti-large" trait and are capable of devastating charges, particularly from the flanks. This same general trend applies to other combinations of traits like "armored" and "armor piercing" or "shielded" vs ranged units and so on. So the key to basic effective battle management is learning the various traits and how to counter them.

My advice for starting out is to pick a faction and stick with it, even if you struggle for a while. The best approach is to keep experimenting until you figure out all the traits and what works. Factions that are generally considered friendly to new players are High Elves and if you have both games Empire and Dwarves.

Also, when the first game came out, a YouTuber named PartyElite made an extensive beginners guide that covers all the basic battle tactics. There have been a lot of tweaks since those videos were made, but the general concepts remain in place and watching them will give you tons of ideas for things to try, I can't recommend them enough to new players. Just search YouTube for Total War: Warhammer PartyElite beginners guide and check it out

[Zefar]

During my time playing the Vampire coast I just didn't have that much fun. It almost seemed like every other army was vastly more powerful than mine.

I'd send units that are effective against other units where it says "Low Threat" but they still seems to die. With the exception of zombie dogs vs archers and catapults. Then the Zombie absolutely wrecked them. Faster than almost any other unit I've ever used.

You can start the round by checking which units are strong vs which units. So select one of your units and move your mouse to their to see if it's a "Low threat" or "High Threat".

I also found that I lacked good melee units because the later groups where just in too few numbers and that does hurt them quite a bit. Other armies could put up a large blockade of melee units that are both strong and durable. Not much with Vampire Coast. So I had to get their Ultimate monster to keep groups at bay. Also a lot of ranged units. Like those rifle type undead units or bomb throwers. Good units to have.

I also made a lot of structures that generated money when I had a decent army and took over a lot of cities.


For the Skeleton boys(Tomb Kings) I just did not like them at all in any kind of way.

[Voxrox]

The best thing to become better is, lame answer, play. The campaign stuff needs some time, you must understand how to get money, and what kind of army you can field with your current income.

As Helves - get trade as much as possible.

For armies - don'T just use one unit that seems to have best stats or something. Have a mixed army, with dedicated defensive infantry, archer support, some attack infantry, cavalry

Against the AI - if you outrange the AI with artillery, they will eventually be forced to attack you. Which means you can play more defensively, which is a lot easier than coordinating an attack.

Pause! Pause all the time, slow down the speed of the battles! Get a situation of what's going on, where are my troops, where is the enemy.

Do not just charge blindly into enemies as well - check what kind of units you are attacking. For example no use sending Spearmen into an attack against heavy armour chaos warriors.

Or heavy cavalry against anything with a bonus against large.

I could go on and on. But in the end - the first advice, play, still stands. No other way to learn the ropes I am afraid.

[yuzhonglu]

Play as the High Elves (Lothren). Just spam archers and spears and you'll do fine.

[SeriousCCIE]

This is my first time playing, and I concur: buying lots of archer and spear units, while simutaneously spending the eventual skill points for lords/heros on buffs for such units (and on defense) is proving to be... mostly enough to keep me alive.

If I dare exploit an opening, and leave a hole where I had a lord standing, someone, somewhere, will show up just as I am out of marching distance to make the hole into my borders a whole lot bigger. As a result, I've learned to be cautious... at least until I learn the machinations (or expected movements and game styles) of the lord personalities in the nearby provenances.

[Gnarl]

I'd say play Kroq'Gar, and focus everything on Saurus Warriors and Spearmen, build up the saurus traits and the traits for stegadons. Dont'worry if your Kroxigors get killed. The Bastilodon is good to keep around, keep him in a group of spearmen or warriors and don't let him fight other spears/halbards. But he gets replaced by better monster reptiles later.

Then just defend. Don't bother going to take anything other than one province. Don't leave a conquered settlement until you built walls.

Try to make it to turn 30, that's really the toughest part of most campaigns.

Replace Warriors and Spearmen with shielded ones when you can of course.

Once you're comfortable with melee, try adding either a mage or a monster like a stegadon. With other races I'd say try adding in ranged or artillery. And just learn them one by one.

[ArchAnge1LT]

Expand at fast rate. Constant battles gives you gold for faster economy build up, also gives experience to your Lord and it just moves you forward a lot faster than if you would camp in few provinces.
At some point sure, you need to stop expanding, and strengthen your borders, armies, but fast expanding pays off immensely late game.

[ChemicalBacon]

Honestly there is no perfect method to tell you how to improve, all races work in different ways and some races are better at some things while others will punish you for doing it.
I’d recommend picking a race you feel most comfortable with. High elves, empire, lizardmen and dark elves are all very simple to play with different yet easily understood mechanics.

After you found a race you like the most mess about with it a bit. Its ok to restart and try again – that’s the learning process. Try to figure out if you are struggling on the campaign map or in battles. Then try to focus from there what precisely you struggle with – expansion, replenishment, agents, micromanagement and morale are all issues that new players struggle with, try to find yours.

If you want to learn more, I recommend checking out LegendofTotalwar; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwgoZXczzKRm4eurUNL9srg
He does a series called “Saving your disaster campaign” where he gets sent a save file and tries to dig that person out of that situation and then send it back to them.

For battles, I recommend watching Turin; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNDJiDFJWaiKktyUBmVzGYA
His content is more multiplayer focused but he has great micro and situational awareness, he casts some tournaments as well as plays and narrates his multiplayer games.

That’s all I can really give you, but if you do find something in particular you struggle with, just ask here and I’ll help you out.

[MadArtillery]

Essentially what it comes down to is use sword infantry vs infantry, spears against anything not infantry, and play protect the archers while your cav/dogs kill the backline and make rear charges. Honestly as high elves just building a stack of nothing but lothern sea guard can ironically work really well. Sure as hell the ai's strategy against me and it's difficult to deal with. Tomb kings and coast I got nothing though. Turian and watching his Eternal Challenger league tournament has sure improved my game though. Keeping things like reserves, better formation onions and the like, can learn a lot watching some damn fine players duke it out.

[petri.piira]

I assume you are playing the Total War Warhammer II campaign, the Vortex campaign? (Instead of the combined WH I + WH II campaign, which you get if you own both WH I and WH II - that is called the Mortal empires campaign).

In the Vortex campaign, the High Elves (if you play Lothern) and the Tomb Kings (if you play Khemri) are both among the easiest possible choices.

However, the advisor in the High Elves campaign still acts based on the initial release of the game. At that time, there were no Vampire Coast, which now interferes with the way the High Elves start their campaign. I would still recommend High Elves as the first faction to try.

Like mentioned, the high elves spearmen and archers are really good. When you can, construct the building which allows bolt throwers.

This kind of army will do very well for the high elves, for quite long in the campaign:
7 spearman - deploy these in a long line.
7 archers - deploy these in a long line behind your spearman line
2 bolt throwers - deploy these behind your archer line.
1 lord, 1 hero - somewhere within your lines.
2 cavalry - one on each side of your army, These are mostly for running down fleeing enemy, but before that, they can harass anyone who is trying to outflank you.

For diplomacy, try to get trade agreement / non aggression pact with anyone you find. Check the diplomacy regularly, if one of the high elf factions suffers a setback, they might lose hope and be open for you confederating them.

For building up your provinces, focus on the following: growth, money, walls. You do not need more than one of each recruitment building in total. But because spearmen, archers, bolt throwers and cheap cavallry is all you need, there is no pressing need to even build higher level recruitment buildings for a long while. Walls are very important for the minor settlements, and quite important for the major ones.

In the early turns as Tyrion, you need to be quick in getting rid of those dark elves. Quicker than the advisor tells you. Pressure them mercilessly. For that, priorize filling your army to full 20 unit cards.

After that, while the advisor is still playing the script of "wait, build things, then go check Caledor" you actually need to find out if the vampire coast factions have already attacked your neighbors. In the Vortex campaign, Caledor is scripted to be hostile, so that direction is not so important - you might need to attack Noctilus instead of Caledor later - but the other side might be already losing against Aranessa, in which case you need to go and interfere there.

[Jade Succubus]

Thanks for all the info.

The consensus I'm finding is

Play more
Diversify troops
Confirm troop matchups (high & low threat)
Manage cavalry better
Get more archers/ranged units
Check out PartyElite for guides
Pause a lot & slow down combat for more time to think