A Newcomer Friendly Guide to Playing as The High Elves Post Queen and The Crone/ Vampire Coast Release

When Total War Warhammer first came out, the High Elves, specifically Tyrion’s campaign, was the most new player friendly campaign and served as a good point of entry for the game. Since the release of the Queen and the Crone DLC and the most recent Vampire Coasts, the campaign has become noticeably more challenging, especially for new players who don’t yet own any of the games DLCs. This guide is mostly geared towards new players but if you’ve played before and you’re having issues playing as Tyrion, then this should still be able to help. This is also meant for Easy to Hard Vortex playthroughs, however I will leave notes throughout to give extra help for players who prefer to play on Very Hard or Legendary.

Introduction

This guide is not a tutorial for basic campaign mechanics, I feel like the game does a decent enough job of explaining things. This is just a list of tips to get your feet of the ground and hopefully it should also help out in other campaigns as well.

It's somewhat long, so I recommend at least reading the Diplomacy sections and the turn 1 break down because they are the most important. You can skim through the rest for information that you think will help you.


What’s making the Campaign harder??

New threats from within and without

Ulthuan used to be the most secure and safe area on the map but CA has added new factions that can actually pose a decent threat to the player if they aren’t prepared. The Vampire Coast will attack from the north on two different fronts and even the tomb kings will attack you on harder difficulties. The northern parts of Ulthuan are also at risk from earlier Dark Elf aggression thanks to Blood Voyages and a larger Scourge of Kaine Presence

Alarielle the EverNemesis

If you have the Queen and the Crone DLC then Alarielle will be one of your biggest allies and you can confederate with her in the late game, if you don't have the DLC however, then Alarielle will be one of your worst enemies because the game won’t let you confederate with her. This guide assume you haven't purchased any DLC yet. You will be competing with her to take as much of Ulthuan as you can as quickly as you can. Every settlement she takes is just one more settlement you'll have to fight her for later.

Turn 1 Opening

• Get a non-aggression pact, Military access, and a trade agreement with Yvresse, Cothique, Ellyrion, and Chrace
  
  
• Get a trade agreement with Saphery,
  
  
• Get a non-aggression pact with Tiranoc.
  
  
• You can sometimes get 1 or 2 Defensive pacts on turn 1 (not including Chrace), put the non-aggression pacts on the table last to see if you can get one.

(Note: I can’t account for the small idiosyncrasies in the diplomatic AI across different difficulties and campaigns, but this should be the bare minimum you should be able to achieve.)

This will give you vision over most of Ulthuan which helps, but most importantly it will start to slowly grow your relationship and help get them on your side and not Alarielle's. It will also let you walk into Yvresse to help them fight pirates without making them mad. Caledor probably won’t ever like you unless you're willing to put a lot of resources into it, you will most likely end up fighting them for the rituals site.

(Note for Legendary: Turn 1 diplomacy is very limited because everyone has an aversion to you and the only person who will give you a trade agreement is Yvresse. This will mean that you need to send a scout out to discover the other HE)

• Declare War on the Scourge of Kaine in the north of Ulthuan, this will make everyone happy. NOTE: if you declare war them via diplomacy with Chrace, you can get a Defensive pact and 300-500 gold from them (do it while sighing every other treaty for more money). This will help a lot later.
  
  
• Declare War on Sartosa. This will make some HE happy but it's important that you protect Yvresse, it’s better if they come after you than them. The only way to declare war with them is through diplomacy with Yvresse. They'll usually back off for the first few turns.
  
  
• Take Glittering Towers and move the rally field there. You should never have red buildings in any capital (HE only). Start recruiting units.

OPTIONAL: Recruit a lord to go settle Caledo’s Repose. This is a gamble that won’t always pay off, but it you get it, it’ll give a strategic location and will help out a lot if you do end up fighting Caledor. If Calador beats you to it then this lord can also be used to take the Shrine of Asuryan before Saphery do, just don’t send him there on his own. You can fire them when you’re done.

OPTIONAL: declare war on the Dread Fleet. This will make Calador happier with you, but it might not be worth it.

After that great first turn the only thing you really need to worry about is finishing off the Cult of Excess, protecting Yvresse and Diplomacy.

Diplomacy Guide

For the most part, most HE factions will start to eventually be your fiend as the game goes on, but you are competing with Alarielle for friends, so you need to be quick to make allies. War, gifts, and Influence are you best ways speed up diplomacy.

• Fighting High Elves will usually upset other high elves and going after some other factions can sometime upset them too if they happen to like them. Dark Elves, Pirates, Skaven, and Norsca are safe bets to help make friends. IF the Norscans are causing too much trouble in the north I defiantly recommend getting involved, otherwise don’t bother. The game can get hard really quick if you get in a fight with them too early. Try and use diplomacy with other HE factions when declaring war to see if they would be willing to sign treaties in exchange for help.
  
  
• Gifts can get supper expensive in the late game and I recommend usually doing small gifts. Only give gifts if you plan on signing treaties in the near future because the effect slowly wears off.
  
  
• Influence is going to win you the game and it has 2 important diplomatic uses. You can use it to boost your relationship with other HE, or more importantly, you can use it to lower everyone else’s relationship with Alarielle. Hurting relationships is cheaper than helping them, and the less people like her the easier it is to win the friendship race. Worst case scenario, the 2 factions end up at war and Alarielle wins, making her stronger but making the others dislike her more, or best-case scenario, she loses, and you don’t have to worry about her anymore. You don’t need to go overboard with hurting Alarielle’s relationships, just make sure they never get above 50 or so. Try not to tank her relationships too much though because things can start to get messy really quick. Improving relationships with HE works the same as gifts. Don’t listen to people who tell you to just turn everyone against each other, this just makes confederations nearly impossible. The only other person you might want to get people to hate more is Calador but this isn’t too necessary HE will already not like him. NEVER lower Alarielle’s opinion of someone, this is a waist of influence.

If you need more influence you can get a noble and send him to towns to secure influence. I recommend doing this to none HE factions but if you have to, do it to Calador. Doing it to your allies' enemies will also give you a relationship boost.

Don't forget to save influence for recruiting Lords and Heroes. Without it you will be forced to recruit low quality ones.

Faction relationships

Calador: unless you put all your resources into them, they will NEVER like you. They dislike every HE faction so their opinion of you will only get worse as you interact with the other HE. You might have to fight them in order to get their ritual site. Fighting them will upset everyone except for Tiranoc and Saphrey. If you wait long enough, they will attack you first. Get as many Defensive pacts as possible before this happens, and you will avoid the diplomatic penalties. End the war as fast as possible and with as few deaths as possible to limit the consequences. Avoid declaring on them. The Dread fleet might kill them, that’s actually great because then you can take the land without upsetting anyone.

Most other factions are pretty straight forward with a few things to consider.

Tiranoc dislikes everyone but is ok with you, they’ll take some attention, but fighting dark elves helps a lot.

Saphery is the only other tricky one. They dislike everyone expect You and Chrace. They are tricky because declaring war on them in less viable because they have a defensive pact with Chrace

Avelorn: Everyone likes them, make sure they don’t. Get a none aggression pact and trade agreement with them, and maybe military access. Do this before you start turning people against her. Never make he your ally, but don’t give her a reason to not like you.

(Note: on easy everyone will like everyone so this section isn't that relevant)

(Note for Legendary: Everyone will hate everyone, especially you so this section basically applies to everyone)

Army Composition

I won’t go into too much detail here. This largely comes down to personal presence and there are some better guides on YouTube that can help. I will still give some general guidelines.

here are some good channels to get you started
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg3BiSs8eBE9hA9EWYTgtAg Tutorials on basic mechanics and general advice
https://www.youtube.com/user/ZerkovichVsThePeople More advance tutorials and Amy guides
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6CLkxOWW-TxdGM9yVTyDfQ Army Comp recommendations

With the way supply lines work, units will slowly become obsolete and need to be cycled out over time. In general, unit progression is like this: units in () require Q&C DLC

Spearmen->Phoenix Guard

Archers->Loethern Sea Guard/(Shadow Warriors)->(Sister of Avelorn)

White Lions->Swardmasters

Great Eagle ->Flamespyre Phoenix->Frostheart Phoenix (Dragons technically outcalls phoenix units but do not directly replace them)

Silverhelms->Dragon Princes

Other units fit into a Niche that can stay relevant the entire game

Early Game Armies

Your early game armies will consist of just archers and spearmen. Once you get access to Lothern Sea Guard you can start slowly replacing archers with them, staring with 3 to keep you back line safe. Don’t bother with armored archers, they aren’t worth the price. Once you have sea guard with shields you should consider using them as your only archer if you can afford it. Their good melee stats and shields more than make up for the increased cost and reduced range.

Lothern Sea guard, despite their better stat line, aren’t a good replacement for spearmen. They have fewer models, and if you use them in melee, you aren’t getting your money's worth.

Ellyrion Reaver archers are good to include and I feel they offer a better value over the non-archer variant

Mid Game Armies

You are going to start to unlock more tools that you can use. You’ll have access to you first heavy Cav in the form of Silver helms, you should always get the shielded version because it’s worth the extra cost and you shouldn’t have an issue paying for them. It’s good to have 1 or 2 in you army to help protect your back line and rear charge the enemy.

You can also start getting Eagle Claw Bolt throwers (I’ll talk more about these later) and Tiranoc Chariots. I’ll be honest; Tiranoc Chariots are garbage. They aren’t as good in melee as Ithilmar Chariots and their ranged attack isn’t going to swing any battles. They have their uses, but those uses are in multiplayer. In campaign your armies need to be built for more general purposes. They give you early magic damage, which can help against Syreens, but you should also start putting a mage in each of your armies at this point, and they should be able to take care of them.

You should start phasing out all of your archers for Shielded Lothern Sea Guard

Finally, you’ll get access to White Lions. They give you an early armor piercing front line unit, but they’re in an odd position. They require their own building (the Grove) which doesn’t lead to any other units and they get replaced by Swordmasters relatively quickly. The Eagle, which is the other unit that the Grove unlocks isn’t that great. Its quickly made obsolete by phoenixes, and on their own they won’t accomplish much that your other units can’t already. You can skip these if you want, but if you feel you do need them, then just remember that they don’t replace spearmen. You should still have 2 dedicated anti-large units unless you plan to use Sea Guard as your only anti-large.

Late Game Armies

You’re mostly just upgrading. Your font line will be Swordmasters with some Phoenix Guard to support. Dragon Princess will replace Silver Helms. Phoenixes are good optional support units; Flamespyres are only good when you micro them well, Frosthearts will do better in general.

The Ithilmar Chariot can do extremely well if you micro them, but if you’re worried you won't be able to, then don’t include them, they will just end up wasting a slot.

I'll talk more about dragons below.

Defending Armies

You’ll need to leave some armies on Ulthuan to defend during rituals. These armies should have at least 1 or 2 Bolt Throwers. These are probably the worst artillery in the game, but the Chaos armies that spawn will often have at least 1 Hell Cannon which can one shot any of your infantry to below ½ health. Bolt Throwers can snipe the cannons before they fire. They’re also good against Skaven artillery, Queen Bess, and Zombies (Multi Bolt mode).

Example Armies:
Early: 8x Spears, 3x Sea Guard, 4x Archers, 1x Ellyrion Reaver, 2x Reaver Archers, 1x Bolt Thrower/Noble

Mid: 2x Spears, 5x White Lions, 6x Sea Guard(shields), 2x Silver Helms(shields), 1x Reaver Archers, 2x Bolt Throwers, 1x Mage/Loremaster

Late: 3x Phoenix Guard, 4x Swordmasters, 5x Sea Guard(shields), 2x Dragon Princes, 1x Frostheart Phoenix, 2x Bolt Throwers, 1x Ithilmar Chariot, 1x Mage

Attacking Armies

The armies you use to attack your enemies should have at least 2 dragons in them once you unlock them. During sieges, dragons can delete elite enemy infantry who are on or behind a wall. All the dragons have their own purpose. However, you won’t notice much a difference between the Moon and Sun dragon’s breath attacks, but the Moon Dragon has better stats overall. The Sun Dragon will do better against low armor, loose formation units like Witch Elves, Berserkers, and Zombies, but the Moon Dragon will still do a good enough job. The Star Dragon’s breath is only meant for large single entities like monsters and lords. You should take a Star and Moon/Sun Dragon in each army. When budgeting slots for dragons remember: generic lords can be given Star Dragons as mounts or Moon Dragons and Sun Dragons for Princesses and Prices respectively.

Example Army: 1x Star Dragon (Lord) 2x Phoenix Guard, 5x Swordmasters, 6x Sea Guard(shields), 2x Dragon Princes, 2x Moon Dragons, 1x Mage/Loremaster, 1x Noble (Horse)

Leveling Characters

A lot of this comes down to personal preference but I included my own personal recommendations to help if you can’t decide

Tyrion

It can be really tempting to max out Tyrion Yellow skills and focus on making his combat stats as OP as possible, but this isn’t the best use of your skill points. Tyrion’s Stats can get to a point where you will start to see 0 return on investment.

YELLOW:
Indomitable and Expeditious Endeavor are both a really poor uses of points because even without them Tyrion can get 100 leadership and Speed which is more than you’ll need. The rest is fair game. Feint and repose is a must get.

Majesty of Ulthuan Vs Bloodline of Aenarion: This depends on personal preference. On easier difficulties both are good, but if you plan to use the Sword of Kaine with Tyrion then the Blood Line path won’t give you much benefit.

(Note for Very Hard+: The Majesty path is the obvious pick. The Global recruitment buff and unit upkeep reduction are incredibly powerful, and Tyrion is already strong enough in combat)

RED:
I recommend always investing in the red line. Combined Elites is unique to Tyrion and its actually worth getting. Master Strategist is also a must for the late game. Put at least two points into both. The rest depends on how you plan to set up your armies. Remember that investing points into something that you won’t have much of or will get replaced isn’t a good investment.

BLUE:
Route marcher is the only necessity here. Make this your first priority. Feel free to put the rest of your points in RED and YELLOW

(Note for Very Hard+: The blue line has some incredible campaigns buffs that will make things a lot easier for you such as -23% unit upkeep and lighting strike which is a must have for legendary play throughs. It’s best to budget at least 11 points for the BLUE line)
Break down: YELLOW ≥25; RED ≥10; BLUE ≥ 1 (Very Hard+: YELLOW ≥16; RED ≥5; BLUE ≥ 11

Princes

The Same logic as Tyrion applies to Princes. Immortality is a must and you can skip the mounts you don’t want. You can skip straight to a star dragon, but I recommend at least getting a horse because it’s a good staring mount. They don’t have Combined Elites, so you can put your points elsewhere if you’d like.

Princesses

They trade Melee Defense buffs for Missile Damage buffs and their abilities focus on benefiting ranged units. Use the same logic as Tyrion.

Heroes

You’ll have enough points to pretty much max out any character except Loremasters. Mages should max out block army and Steal technology; nobles should max out Secure influence, assassinate, and replenish troops, Loremasters should max out training. Everyone should max out specialist; the rest can go into yellow skills.

DO NOT put a noble on an eagle. His stats take a hit and he loses his bonus vs Large. The improved mobility and higher damge ins't really necessary in the campaign and isn't worth losing one of your best early game armor piecing anti large units

Economy and Empire Building

This is all pretty straight forward. Lothern should be your military Center and should have all of your recruitment buildings. Red Buildings should usually not be built in capitals, but Lothern can afford to fit 1 if you sacrifice an economy building. (If you have the Q&C DLC you’ll need to save this slot for the added advanced Military Building)

• You should focus all you other provinces on economy. If a province has a bonus to recruiting certain units, then you can build the required recruitment building there so that you have the choice of recruiting there.
  
  
• When you are first developing a province, considered putting level 2 farms in every settlement. This will significantly speed up the growth process and it won’t require an unreasonable investment. Demolish farms after a province is fully developed
  
  
• Every settlement should have an upgraded Garrison Building in it.
  
  
• Every capital should have a mages’ tower and elven court in it.
  
  
• Always build landmarks and resource buildings. Resources unlock tech and provide a lot of money in trade.
  
  
• You need to get over seas trade started as soon as possible. You will need to find all factions that own a port. You can do this through research, a random event, or by sending out an early noble to scout. Humans, lizardmen, and tomb kings, make good trade partners.

(Note for Very Hard+: Discovering tomb kings early might invite an early attack from them, try to only make contact after you've built up strength)

Defending Ulthuan

You have two main threats to worry about: The Vampire Coast and the Dark Elves. Ironically, you can argue that it’s better to just let them attack you allies and take their cities, so you can then go in and take it without worry about the diplomatic game. That’s true, feel free to use that strategy, just don’t let it get out of hand. Worst case scenario, the losing faction will confederate with Alarielle and you’ll start falling behind. Also, be careful of letting Norsca and Vampires take land because they’ll spread corruption into your lands as well.

You’ll need to recruit a second army as soon as you’re able so that you can fight the DE in the North and keep your territory in the south safe. By the time you’re able to make it up north, the inner circle will probably be cleared out by Alarielle. You’ll have to push through the Phoenix Gate or use the Unicorn Gate to get to Nagarythe.

(Note for Very Hard+: you won’t be able to afford an army to send up north so don’t worry about it. Caledor will declare war on you very early and Sartosa will be more aggressive so you can’t afford to worry about the Shrine yet.)

With luck you will be able to take Nagarythe and, most importantly, the Shrine of Kaine from the Scourge of Kaine. The Shrine is your priority target. Unfortunately, depending on how long it takes you to get up there and some random chance, the Scourge of Kaine might be more or less wiped out before you arrive. This isn’t the end of the road. You have 2 choices: Leave it be for now and focus efforts elsewhere or take the shrine from whoever has it. That’s obviously going to be a HE, maybe even Alarielle. If you do that, be careful because on harder difficultie the other HE will quickly turn on you and you can end up losing Ulthuan. Don’t leave your southern land compromised just to race up north, not getting the Shrine early won’t cost you the game. The army you sent up there can either then focus on Norsca or head back down south to fight Caledor and the Vampires.

There is always the chance that a Blood Voyage will come through and raze the Shrine, giving you a chance to take it, but the Shrine itself can have one of the strongest garrisons in Ulthuan and mid to late game blood voyages don’t stand a chance of taking it.

Your main early game efforts are going to be spent in the south defeating Caledor and fighting off pirates. It should only take Caledor a few dozen turns to declare war on you. By this point you should have a Defensive agreement with everyone but Alarielle. Call them into the war to avoid any negative diplomatic penalties but make sure that they don’t actually involve themselves. This is where having Caledor’s Repose comes in handy. You can have an army or two waiting there and then immediately move them to take Tor Sethai which should keep Tiranoc from taking any parts of Caledor. After that you should be able to just concentrate everything on Vaul’s Anvil, earning you your first (or second) Ritual site.

Sartosa will give you a turn or 2 or worrying before they land on Ulthuan. Yvresse can’t fight back well enough. “Main” AI factions get huge auto resolve buffs against minor factions, so they can easily steam roll them. Keep a small army on standby to help them. Even a few units can make a huge difference.

Dealing with Sartosa is an open-ended question. Once Caledor is gone, you can focus all your resources on them until something else comes up. Chances are they’ll persist into the mid game. A few important warnings: Satorso is somewhat dangerous in the early game, their Free Company units outmatch your spearman and they can also outrange you. Their main settlement has a very strong garrison that an early game army can’t take on its own, and Vampires gain an advantage when fighting wars of attrition. The more casualties end up on Ulthuan, the better the units that they can recruit will get. It’s best to fight them at sea to avoid this.

When fighting them use Bolt throwers to snipe their artillery then switch to gunners. Your range units should be able to take care of theirs, but if they’re zombies they will stick around for a long time. Use your Cav to finish them off and help your spearmen. There monsters are no issue because half your army is anti-large. In the mid game they will start using Syreens and you won’t have many tools to fight them. Mages with the lore of Life, Heavens, and Shadows all have early spells that can get rid of them easily, I recommend lore of Life because Awaking the Wood can two shot blobbed up Syreens and can be cast on walls, but the choice is yours.

(Note for Very Hard+: There is a good chance that a tomb king faction might declare war on you in the early game. Try not to fight back as much as possible and they should eventually just ask for peace)

Finishing off Sartosa

Once you able to get a least army with good armor piercing and magic damage, you should sail for Sartosa. Use the Invocation of Isha and start sieging them till your towers are ready. Hopefully you’ll be attacking them with tear 4 units because White Lions on their own aren’t strong enough to be Syreens and Depth Guard. You’ll need Swordmasters and air units to beat the 40 or so super tanky units protecting the town.

Sartosa will either be Tier 4 or 5; the difference is that at tear 5 it will have an extra unit of Deck Gunners and a Colossus and the towers will do more damage. At tier for 4 it will also have 2 Bloated Corpses. Here a few tips for the fight:

• Be prepared to lose 1 or 2 towers before reaching the wall.
  
  
• A lore of life mage should start to kill the Syreens using Awaken the Woods.
  
  
• If you have any dragons, they can start deleting depth guard units on the wall with their breath attacks before your towers reach them. Be careful because Hand gunners and Deck Gunners can do a lot of damage to them, and if there is a Colossus it can also kill your dragons if you aren’t careful.
  
  
• 2 bolt throwers should be able to snipe any Colossi pretty well over time. You can also use them to take care of the Mortars which can do a lot of damage over time.
  
  
• Phoenixes will have magic damage at the start of the fight and they can help support units fighting Syreens. They will eventually lose it though if you use a mage.
  
  
• If there are Bloated Corpses behind the wall, then attack it with a flying unit to trigger it so it can’t do any damage.
  
  
• Most of your archers and anti-large units should come in the second wave
  
  
• The same applies to the Dread Fleet if you decide to take them out as well.

Dethroning Alarielle

This is it, the moment that this guide as been preparing you for. Hopefully, diplomacy has worked out well and you now control the large majority of Ulthuan, which will make this part a lot easier. More likely however 2 or 3 provinces as slipped through the cracks, maybe even more. Alarielle gets diplomatic bonuses with other HE and the AI gets improved odds to confederate so chances are she will control a lot of the north if not more. If she controls the large majority of Ulthuan then you might have to go to the south lands to build up and avoid falling behind.

This isn’t a small lovers quarrel, this is like a mini mid game boss. Alarielle is basically a better version of you. Her start location isn’t as strong, but she has access to more units and if she has the Sword of Kaine (which she probably will) then she will be more than a match for Tyrion in melee.

• Break your treaties beforehand if you want to avoid the hit to your reliability.
  
  
• Try to have a least 4 armies by this point.
  
  
• Attack from multiple locations at once to prevent her from taking your settlements and focus on taking her statements before you fight her.
  
  
• When you do fight her, try to do so with overwhelming numbers.
  
  
• Attack her with Tyrion so he can get the sword after
  
  
• When you do fight her, keep your units as spread out as possible because the sword gives her an ability that can completely wipe out several units if you blob up.
  
  
• She also has Sisters of Avelorn which can melt most of your units when they focus fire.
  
  
• Be prepared to lose 1 or 2 high value units before the fight actually starts and a few more before the fight is over.
  
  
• Dragon Princess and Flamespyre Phoenixes actually have a 70% fire resistance which means they can tank their attacks better than any of your other units, making them perfect tools for dealing with them.
  
  
• Dragons and Phoenixes are also your best units for fighting tree spirits.
  
  
• Use Tyrion and 1 or 2 Nobles on horse to take care of Alarielle. Try not to send any infantry or cav after her because you’ll be basically throwing these units away. If you want, you can send a unit of spearmen to support Tyrion, but that unit probably won’t survive.

Once Alarielle has been defeated, the rest should be a lot easier. Just be sure to have something in your army that can deal with Sisters of Avelorn.



Congratulations! You’ve just made it past the biggest hurdle in your campaign. The rest should be a lot easier.

The only other added challenge are blood voyages, but Nagarythe has some of the strongest garrisons so they shouldn't be a huge problem.

GOOD LUCK!

Other Considerations

• NEVER become Military Allies with any HE. This will lower your odds of confederation them. Only defensive pacts.
  
  
• If Alarielle does beat you in the Friend race, go to the southlands and take land there. There is a ritual sight there and it’ll help you get stronger to fight her later.
  
  
• You can keep the Cult of Excess around for as long as you want and farm brownie points from them, but you should get a second army to fight pirates and take out the northern Dark elves. If the pirates start taking land, they will spread corruption into your territory.
  
  
• Go after the Northern Dark elves ASAP because the more territory you take from them is less territory that Alarielle can get. If you can take the shrine of Khaine then then you might not need to fight her at all.
  
  
• Check back with the other HE often to see if you can further your alliance. If one faction is struggling to fight an enemy, they are more likely to confederate. Don’t do this if you are also at war with the same faction. (A good reason to wait to go after Norsca.)
  
  
• When you confederate with a HE faction you might end up with some units from the Q&C DLC
  
  
• When Skaven armies start to spawn during rituals, you should attack and kill them immediately. If give them a chance to attack they will just over whelm your cities and ambush your armies, allowing them to take you apart piece by piece.
  
  
• If you lose the vortex race you can still win the campaign
  
  
• waiting to do all the Rituals at once can be a strong strategy as long as you don't wait too long and as long as you keep your ritual sites guarded

Understanding unit stats

This is just a quick and dirty run down of some stats that aren't completely straight forward.

Armor: percentage of damage reduction ranging from ½ to full listed value. (100 Armor will reduce damage taken by 50-100%) Armor piercing damage obviously ignores armor (all units have some amount of armor piercing)

Melee Attack: odds of hitting

Melee Defense: odds of not getting hit

Weapon strength: how much damage you do when you hit a unit. Missile damage is instead listed as damage over 10 seconds assuming uninterrupted fire.

Charge Bonus: adds to your melee attack and damage by the listed amount.

Bonus vs Inf/Large: works the same as charge bonus when fighting certain unit types.

Unit abilities: these vary based on unit, but some basics are: damage resistance, which stacks on top of each other and reduces the amount of damage you take from different sources; Fear, reduces leadership of nearby enemy units; terror, can route a unit based on a random dice roll. Charge defense blocks enemy charge bonus if unit is stationary and charged form the front.

Conclusion

TL;DR: Make friends with HE ASAP using Influence. Don’t get Military alliances with HE. Keep Sartosa out of Yvresse. Wait for Calador to attack you or lose to Dread Fleet to take his land. Take Scourge of Khaine Territory ASAP. Use Influence to keep Alarielle from making friends.

If you have a specific question you need help with, or if you have your own advice that you'd like to give, please post it in the comments. This is meant to help people get into the game so any new info is good.

[アキ君]

@Dart everything is boring if you read and follow guides like a braindead zombie

[Dart]

Vanilla TW2 is so boring... Can't wait until Grimhammer mod will be fixed after latest update.

[Madok]

Yeah, Tyrion campaign is so different now, i just finished campaign as dark eleves and i decide to try once more as tyrion and is much much harder now, btw about that point Allariele, i dont have dlc but why i supposed to attack her when she can be my ally and i can go conquer another lands ?

[ArthurSSC]

I'm really struggling with the Tyrion campaign, as I'm reallu new to the game and was led to believe that this was an easy campaign.
20 turns in and Yvresse, my ally to the east, is beign wiped out by Sartosa, and Calador has fallen to the Dreadfleet (both Vampire Coast have at least a full stack). I'm having trouble wiping out the Cult of Excess, since beating them and the garrison of the province they hold is quite difficult.
Also, my economy never actually takes off. I was making +1000 gold per turn, until I had to make a second lord to help me win those tough battles, and then a third to defeat the Dreadfleet attacking my capitol (won, but got really battered).
Any more specific tips that can help me (other than lower the campaign difficulty)?