The Immortal Empires Guide to Tzarina Katarin of the Kislev Ice Court Updated for Patch 4.1

This is a guide to playing the Immortal Empires campaign with Tzarina Katarin, the ruler of Kislev's Ice Court.

This guide includes some tips and advice for strategy and tactics, along with a brief guide to the early game.

It is current as of Patch 4.1

Why Play the Ice Court?

Playing the Ice Court is challenging.

I would not recommend a Tzarina Katarin campaign to someone who is just beginning to play Total War Warhammer. However, for experienced players, the Ice Court campaign in Immortal Empires can provide a difficult, engaging game. You are beset by enemies from all sides, fighting on multiple fronts against long odds. If you want a campaign that is one of the more difficult experiences in WH3, Katarin of Kislev may be a good fit.

In addition to the challenge of the campaign, it has a lot of fun flavor that makes it engaging. Kislev have two unique schools of magic, a good roster of units, and a great array of Kislev specific magic item drops.

Kislev Strengths and Weaknesses

Kislev's major military strength in the early game is their Kossars. Kossars are their hybrid infantry unit that is both an okay combatant and a decent missile unit. Like the Wood Elf Glade Guard, these are an inexpensive and versatile unit that will form the bulk of your early game armies.

One of the hidden strengths of Kislev is the quality of their province commandments.
The "Relief Columns" commandment gives you +2 units when recruiting. This allows you to double your recruiting rate compared with most factions early game. The "Power of the Church" commandment provides a +2 rank level bonus when recruiting heroes, and you should try to have it active whenever you recruit a new hero. When not recruiting, the "Purge the Steppes" commandment gives bonus to control.

The low cost of the basic Kossar unit, combined with the "Relief Columns" commandment means that you can (and should) field large armies of Kossars, to overwhelm your enemies.

The Kislev economy is OK, but not great. Initially, you don't have access to many trade goods, so trade is not going to power your war efforts.

The good news is that early on, while you are not making very much money from your settlements, you can mostly sustain your economy on battle loot.

How to survive the early game

After having played more than a dozen Ice Court campaigns in Immortal Empires, I am convinced that there is one optimal strategy for the early game. There is a certain order of priorities, and I've found that when I deviate from this proscribed order, my campaign tends to go much more poorly.

Step 1: Eliminate the Norscans

The first order of business is to eliminate the Baersonlings (the Norscan tribe you start out at war with) and take over the entirety of the Southern Oblast Province.

The secret to achieving this in a rapid fashion is to recruit a Boyar Lord in your capital of Kislev, put the "Relief Columns" commandment in place for additional recruiting, and recruit lots and lots of Kossars.

The Baersonling battles are not pushovers. You will want to manually fight all of these early battles to minimize your casualties, and you will want to be recruiting the maximum number of Kossars in between each turn.

Once you've taken the entirety of the Southern Oblast, give that province the same "Relief Columns" commandment and continue to recruit the maximum number of Kossars you can afford.

Step 2: Eliminate Azhag the Slaughterer

Once you've taken Fort Jakova, you will find that you have a new Greenskin neighbor, Azhag the Slaughterer. It is only a matter of time before he declares war on you, and the longer you wait to engage him, the more powerful he gets. (He's going to trigger a Waugh army sometime in the first 7-8 turns.)

Build up your army on the Fort Jakova/Karak Ungor border and either take out Azhag if you can isolate him, or take out Karak Ungor. Hopefully, Azhag is fighting Drycha or the Dwarves and will be focused on them, so you can attack when they are not expecting it. I've found that using two armies and ambushing with the stronger army to be one of the best techniques.

Keep an eye out for Cathay caravans in the Fort Jakova region. If you see one, attack it. They are relatively easy to beat and will reward you with up to a thousand gold.

Taking out Azhag requires both skill and luck. By the time you are successful, Thrott the Unclean and his Skaven hordes will be making inroads to your North. I have found that the best strategy is to give Khazid Irkulaz that you just took from Azhag to the Dwarves of Karak Kadrin. In exchange for these settlements, you can expect to get a trade agreement, non-aggression pact, and you will have a friendly faction holding down your Eastern border.

Similarly, trade the Karak Raziak settlement to Drycha for a non-aggression pact with her Wargrove of Woe faction.

I typically will keep Karak Ungor because Karak Ungor has a gold mine (and Kislev needs the cash.)

Step 3: Go North and Fight Thrott and his Skaven

Once you've sorted out Azhag, you can turn your attention to the North and fight Thrott the Unclean and the Norscan tribes.

As long as all of your threats are coming from a single direction, you should be able to handle the pressure. Do what you can to minimize the threat from Drycha. Get a treaty with her if you can. (Give her the Karak Raziak settlement.) Don't enter into any treaties with any factions that are at war with her.

Step 4: Take Praag

While you are fighting Skaven and Norscans, keep an eye on the Ropsmenn clan. Between battles with Skaven and Norscans, they are going to be substantially weakened. When they've lost all of their territories other than Praag, attack them and take Praag for yourself. This will give you a second capital city and will be a substantial boost to your economy and military power.

Step 5: Play the Diplomacy Game

Early on, it feels like nobody likes you. However, as the game progresses, the Empire factions will slowly warm to you and you will be able to get treaties with them.
Don't take on any treaties with factions at war with Drycha. Do everything you can to get treaties with Karl Franz. A defensive alliance with Karl Franz and an outpost in or adjacent to Altdorf will give you access to recruiting Hellstorm Rocket Batteries later in the game.

Regarding Kislev factions, don't worry about The Great Orthodoxy. They can't declare war on you. Don't enter into any treaties with the Ropsmenn Clan. You want to declare war on them eventually and take Praag.

Winning the Supporters Race with The Great Orthodoxy

Winning the race to gain supporters is not that difficult.

Build the church buildings in all of your towns except for Kislev. This is a more consistent way of gaining support compared with Motherland Invocations. The churches build support every turn, while the invocations require various actions in order to create support. The churches provide control and anti-corruption benefits as well.

Don't worry if the Great Orthodoxy beats you to the first supporter goal. You will eventually be able to catch up and surpass them.

Army Composition and Tactics

Kislev is primarily a ranged and magic focused military.

In general, your tactics will have a goal of exposing the enemy to missile fire for as long as possible.

Early game, your damage dealing missile troops will be Kossars, with spear Kossars in front to hold the line.

The Akshina Ambusher unit is an excellent ranged unit with very high missile damage and the ability to stalk and remain hidden. They are definitely worth recruiting if you can afford it as they are an upgrade to Kossars in almost every respect. Their stalk ability is particularly effective at allowing them to move unseen to fire into the enemy's flanks and rear.

Later, Armored Kossars are good line holders.

Mid game, you can add some Streltsi to your mix of missile troops. They can not fire in an indirect arc like Kossars can, so you have to be careful to set up your formations to maximize their lines of fire, but the damage they can dish out (especially to armored units,) is very good.

Light war sleds are good at skirmishing, but are also surprisingly good at pinning down advancing enemies to allow them to be shot up by your missile troops. Charge your sleds into the enemy while the enemy is in range of your missile troops, and the effect can be devastating.

Kislev has some very good AOE damage spells in their roster (Hawks of Miska and Heart of Winter) that can do terrific damage to pinned down enemy blobs. (Neither of these spells harms friendly troops.)

By late game, your higher tier armies should consist of a couple of pinning or "tar-pitting" units like Warbear cavalry, Elemental Bears, or Tzar Guard. These pinning units are supported by your lord and several heroes mounted on warbears. Your late game missile unit damage dealers are Ice Guard and Streltsi.

For artillery, the ideal units are Hellstorm Rocket Batteries, recruited from your Empire allies. If you don't have access to allied recruitment, then the Little Grom is a capable and versatile artillery piece.

However, even when I get access to higher tier units, I still find that I'm often still recruiting armies made from mostly Kossars. They are just so cheap and effective that I tend to use them throughout the entire game.

Best Traits and Skills for Patriarchs, Ice Maidens, Boyars, and Ice Witches

Some of the more useful traits for lords and heroes are:


"Strongholder" gives an army melee bonus when fighting in your own territory. This is a great trait for lords who are positioned to defend your frontier settlements.

"Disciplined" buffs your army's melee and leadership

"Strategist" provides a campaign movement buff

"Cunning" gives a bonus to ambush success chance.


When selecting traits during Ice Court training for Ice Witches and Ice Maidens, I tend to favor buffs to range over melee.

One of the less common and more useful traits is ":Eldritch Defender" which reduces attrition damage. Wading through provinces that are heavy with Chaos corruption is pretty common, so this attrition mitigation is often very good.

When choosing between the traits that reduce upkeep for chariots (war sleds) and artillery (little Grom,) I generally pick the chariot trait because I often have multiple war sleds in an army, but seldom have lots of artillery.

Here's an example of a well-specced Ice Maiden:

Spells and Skills for Casters and Patriarchs

Patriarchs:

The Patriarch's AOE heal skill, Salyak's Lullaby, is extremely useful and available at very low levels.
Unlike most healing spells, there is no entity cap, so all friendly units in the AOE range get healed.
All of your Patriarchs should probably get this skill.

When they reach level 20, Patriarchs can choose a special skill. I tend to either choose the one that buffs replenishment and reduces Salyak's Lullaby cooldown, or the skill that provides for attrition mitigation.


Ice Magic

The premier Ice Magic spell is Heart of Winter. It costs a lot of winds of magic, but it will absolutely destroy large enemy blobs. Send your caster out in front of your army with some Patriarchs for healing support and an elemental bear or bear cavalry for tar-pitting. Cast Heart of Winter on the blobbing enemy, and watch them wither and die. Heart of Winter can also be very powerful in sieges. Break down the enemy gates, and cast on the blob that develops fighting for the area in front of the gates.

Crystal Sanctuary makes pinning and tar-pitting units much more durable.

Ice Sheet is low cost and slows the enemy, so you can get more time to shoot him.

I seldom use Death Frost or Frost Blades.

Tempest Magic

Hailstorm is a decent, low cost bombardment.

Biting Wind is a very good wind spell

Hawks of Miska causes decent damage and de-buffs the enemy leadership.

Blizzard is a very good AOE damage spell.


Swiftwing is occasionally useful if you're doing a war sled or bear cavalry charge.

The Tech Tree

Generally, the first techs I research are Cold Storage and Convalescence to help buff growth and replenishment.

Then, Hooked Axe Blades and Pirate Weapons to buff my troops.

After that, I tend to work towards Trool Country Pathfinder (because campaign movement range is always good.) and Siege Mentality (because more ammo is also very good.)

Awesome Kislev Faction Magic Items

Kislev has some of the best faction-specific magic item drops in the entire game.

Many of the best items provide AOE buffs to surrounding troops, and most of these buffs are constant, so you don't need to activate the item for the buff to take effect. Equip these on your Lord and heroes and send them in with a blob of warbear cavalry.

Here are some examples of the excellent Kislev items that are available.

The Mirror of the Ice Queen (causes constant AOE damage to enemies) and the Dazh Brazier (cause AOE regeneration for allies) are particularly good.

[CplDarkeye]

Do you have a recommendation for how to build katarina ?

[Urakuya]

there are other ways to play kislev that also work for example you can grab erengrad and praag quite quickly and easily and upgrading them all the way will make kislev territory a lot more defensible and also give access to boris,

also kislevs ranged capabilities are pretty weak comapred to other factions but ice guards are pretty good at shutting down flanks and slowing broken units so u can finish them off before they escape, adding some other units to a tzar guard + ice guard comp helps a lot like cavalry/war bears/chariots and maybe one or two elemental bears can be helpful

one way to get all three capitals is take praag asap and make peace and confed roppsman later on, the other clan thats owns erengrad can be confed quickly and easily but you need the econ to garrison a decent army not just kossars

[majorpaynedogg]

Great guide, will try Kislev in my next campaign

[Malenthas]

I didn't realize that Gust of True Flight could affect more than one unit. Will have to try it out.

[Sea Turtles]

Gust of True Flight is actually pretty great when overcast, have a tight formation of ice guard or streltsi, then cast it and all the units get massively increased range. Combo it with the tar pit of frost magic, and it's a slaughter