Absolute beginner

[rgraham666]

So, due to the recent sale I purchased Warhammer 2…

…and I'm finding it a rather overwhelming experience. Since there isn't a real manual explaining mechanics (that I can find) I'll be asking a lot of questions here.

Biggest problem at the moment is figuring out how items work in battles.

I'm playing the Tyrion/HE campaign and I've equipped him with the Ring of Khaine. I've tried to use it in a couple of battles. I select the ability, arrange the AoE, right click, and nothing. Tried left clicking. Nothing. Tried Return key. Nothing,

I figure it would be easier to ask than start experimenting with the keyboard.

Also, in my last battle, Tyrion went down because I was too busy trying to figure out what I was doing. Do I get him back? He was pretty high level and I'll be pissed if I've lost him for good.

Thanks in advance.

[Ogami]

Unique Lords usually get "wounded" when they are defeated in battle. You get him back in a few turns.

[The Warmongering Khan]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Unique Lords usually get "wounded" when they are defeated in battle. You get him back in a few turns.

LLs that is. Normal lords die.

[ArchAnge1LT]

Watch some Zerkovich videos on youtube on basics and tips.

[rgraham666]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Unique Lords usually get "wounded" when they are defeated in battle. You get him back in a few turns.

Thanks. That's a relief.

[rgraham666]

Originally posted by ArchAnge1LT:

Watch some Zerkovich videos on youtube on basics and tips.

Checked them out. They're of more use to someone who already has a thorough knowledge of the mechanics. Which I do not have.

I still don't know how to use that ring for example.

[Insane Scientist]

This was my first Total War game and the series definitely has a massive learning curve. Few things I can recommend to help out starting, there are lots of great steam guides worth reading, this one in particular for High Elves is great https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633594790 , only thing I would contradict in this guide is I wouldn't farm influence from people you don't intend to go to war with like Fyrus. There is a more advanced trick where you leave a High Elf enemy gate settlement left after defeating them and farm influence there.

There are some really great youtubers that make Total War content and tutorials too.
As someone else said, Zerkovich makes great tutorials, his content is mainly aimed at multiplayer battles but it's still very useful in general, especially his 'Why you suck at Total War!' & 'Noob Mistakes!' series, they'll be easier to follow if you start the series/playlists from the beginning.

Other than Zerkovich there is LegendOfTotalWar, full time youtuber that makes a career out of playing WH2 on Legendary and makes vids daily, he actually just started a Tyrion Vortex campaign yesterday! You could get a good idea out of high level campaign play watching him, only thing I'd keep in mind is as he plays on Legendary with Very Hard battle difficulty this skews the stats of units in games where enemy units are stat buffed and yours are nerfed, this makes army composition a lot more one dimensional such as melee being weaker and ranged being stronger so LegendOfTotalWar makes armies suited towards legendary, if you play on normal battle you have a lot more freedom in army composition.

Lastly, The Strategy Professor has an in-depth beginner guide video which covers just about everything and is probably the best beginner guide I've seen: https://youtu.be/IO3gP5ax5f4

[rgraham666]

Thank you.

[Konstantin]

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Unique Lords usually get "wounded" when they are defeated in battle. You get him back in a few turns.

LLs that is. Normal lords die.

Do not forget Lords with the Immortal Trait and Bretonian Commanders with the Grail Quest done. Those will come back too.

[Lunos]

Do you remember what the ability is called? Certain abilities/spells can only be used on certain targets. Some will only target fliers for example, others have restrictions such as not being able to be used on the tops of walls. Also some are direct line of sight spells which require an unobstructed view of the target. Fireball is an example of this. Make sure you read each ability carefully to find out what it does and what its restrictions are. Barring that, every ability has a range attached to it. When you select your ability and the targeting reticule appears, the line between your caster and the reticule will be either blue or red. Blue indicates the spell is within range, red means your lord is too far and will attempt to march into casting range before firing. After successfully selecting your target, your caster will start to cast the spell which you will see a bar appear around the ability. You have to wait for the spell or ability to finish before moving the character, otherwise the ability or spell will cancel. Quick edit: Left click is the button you press to cast after choosing your ability. Right clicking will deselect whatever action you have.

Lords of a faction are called Legendary Lords and are unkillable. They may be wounded for several turns after being hurt in battle however. Normal Lords that you recruit can be permanently killed however unless given the trait "Immortal" after reaching level 20.

[rgraham666]

Ah. Here I was expecting consistent behaviour from the interface. My bad.

I was sure I tried left-clicking but by that time I was so frustrated I might have missed it.

Thanks.

[rgraham666]

I'm finding battles overwhelming.

First, trying to get set up. I can't seem to get intervals and lines clean. I group units according to type, move then to where I want them to go, set up their lines, and they never seem to be straight. I set up another unit next to them and there is either too big a gap between them or none at all, and each group's front with each other isn't straight.

Then, as in the battle I just fought and lost. I give orders to groups and they basically do what ever the ♥♥♥♥ they want. Is it because my LL went down, again? At least I got the ring to work. Nice damage too. Confusing that its mechanic is left-click enabled rather than right-click like everything else.

I'm thinking I should just do a couple (of dozen) battles to get used to them.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Todalio]

As an another mentionned,

There is a lot of guide on Youtube to help
Zerkovich is probably the easiest to understand about the RTS part of the game.

If you want some guidance on the campaign, you can look for Legendoftotalwar, who also gives a rather special approach at playing the battles and he focus on legendary difficulty.

Turin offer nice matchmaking videos where you can learn from other players and see if a race would suit you better.

[Todalio]

If you do not have any DLC, I would recommend you starting with the High Elves or the Lizardmen.
HE enables you a more passive approach. You can learn easily with them.
Lizardmen(As I'm playing right now), offers IMO the easiest melee-focused faction and you will be worrying about routing unit much less than with the Skavens, which would be the last I recommend for a new player.

[rgraham666]

Thanks for your replies,

[Insane Scientist]

Originally posted by rgraham666:

I'm finding battles overwhelming.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, battles can become very big and chaotic in WH2, even skilled players can have difficulty managing everything at once, but you'll get better with experience, you can use custom battle if you want to practice scenarios with out any consequences for losing.

Originally posted by rgraham666:

First, trying to get set up. I can't seem to get intervals and lines clean. I group units according to type, move then to where I want them to go, set up their lines, and they never seem to be straight. I set up another unit next to them and there is either too big a gap between them or none at all, and each group's front with each other isn't straight.

For setting up units at start of battle, I again would refer to Zerkovich's 'Why you suck at Total War!' & 'Noob Mistakes!' video series which are both great and cover battle gameplay to a level campaign players don't even need since multiplayer is harder, his 4th vid in that first series is actually about formations. Turin, another great WH2 multiplayer player has a fantastic guide on deployment, moving & grouping of units: https://youtu.be/KqbsHRiofzY
I wouldn't worry about having intervals and lines between units perfectly clean, there is no function in Warhammer 2 to place with perfect even intervals, it's fine if your formations are a bit rough.

Originally posted by rgraham666:

Then, as in the battle I just fought and lost. I give orders to groups and they basically do what ever the ♥♥♥♥ they want. Is it because my LL went down, again? At least I got the ring to work. Nice damage too. Confusing that its mechanic is left-click enabled rather than right-click like everything else.

Sometimes units will get bogged down when they're being attacked by another unit and this can make them forget orders as they become occupied fighting the other unit, you may have to repeat orders on a unit sometimes to get them to do what you want, for example, if I send my lord to attack the enemy lord, but a unit of infantry gets in his way, he might forget to attack the other lord and focus on fighting off the enemies surrounding him, so I'll spam orders on him to chase down the enemy lord until he escapes the other enemies.

Same thing with normal units, you might order some archers to fire on the foe, but if they get stuck in melee with a unit of swordsmen you'll need to order them to pull away and escape before they can fire again, another reason units might ignore orders is if they are routing, this happens when your unit has taken significant losses and they run away in fear, denoted by the grayed out unit card and gray flag above the unit banner, you can tell a unit is close to routing when their banner is flashing which means their morale is wavering. Heavy army losses cause all of your units to suffer in morale, as well the death of their lord, this can contribute to routing too. Hope this helps!