The Complete Warhammer II Factions Guide

NEW & INTERMEDIATE PLAYER GUIDE: Too many races? yeah, there's 9 races in Warhammer 1 and 6 more races in Warhammer 2. Picking your favourite out of 15 races can be quite challenging when you know nothing about them. Also learning how to play them. So this guide is intended to make your experience easier. By teaching you how to play with them and giving you the best units with them.

CAMPAIGN KNOWLEDGE: Different lords have different objectives in the story Eye of the Vortex Campaign, some have the same missions but others have different missions. And some special events happen in Mortal Empires at a certain time. Unfortunately, the game doesn't tell you what or when. So in this guide I'm also going to do just that, telling you the best campaigns with each race as well as the objective campaigns with each race.

I. BASICS FOR RACES

For the Complete Beginner

What qualifies me to teach you any of these? I beat Warhammer 1 with: The Empire, Bretonnia (Co-op), Chaos, Wood Elves. I beat Warhammer 2 on very hard with: High Elves, Vampire Coast, Tomb Kings, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Skaven, the Empire, Greenskins.

Is any of these 3 true for you:
- You just started Total War Warhammer for the first time?
- This is the first time you are using a PC?
- You just discovered fire?

If you said yes to one of these questions, then watch this short tutorial video.

If you're so new that you don't even know how to play Total War Warhammer, I recommend this video. People really take for granted the initial hurdle a complete beginner has to get past. The UI and terms really are overwhelming the first time you play.

And I 100% recommend picking, you know, the recommended campaign first time you play. Whether you want to play Eye of the Vortex or Mortal Empires, Tyrion is so easy it's not even worth mentioning the many reasons why he is so easy. Just play Tyrion aka "the tutorial campaign", also a fan favourite.

Warhammer 2 Races

But this guide is about people who already know how to play Total War Warhammer on a basic level and just want to get better.

Maybe you want to try on harder campaigns or on harder difficulty level. Or both. Maybe you want to play multiplayer without being beaten in 5 minutes.

This is a guide for how to become better with every single race and how to pick the race that is best for your particular playstyle.

Let's introduce the races first...

The races in question are:

Warhammer 1:
1. Empire (German Humans but their leader is competent)
2. Bretonnia (French Humans but they're honorable)
3. Vampire Counts (Romanians but they're undead and want to steal the Empire's throne)
4. Warriors of Chaos (Hell, end boss for Mortal Empires unless you play with them)
5. Norsca (Human Vikings but they're supporting Hell)
6. Dwarves (Short Humans who live in the Mountains like Lord of the Rings and hold grudges)
7. Greenskins (Orks basically, likes fighting, they and the Dwarves hate each other)
8. Wood Elves (Elves but they're hippies, forest masters, better stats when fighting in forest)
9. Beastmen (Animals gone wild, another hell-supporting faction, horde faction)

Warhammer 2:
10. High Elves (Elves but civilized, they like cities where as Wood Elves like the forest)
11. Dark Elves (Elves but they are evil although not supporting hell, they like slaves)
12. Skaven (Rats who live under the city, everyone hates them, including other Skaven)
13. Vampire Coast (They took the undead from Pirates of the Caribbean and made a faction)
14. Tomb Kings (Egyptians but they're undead, although not the Romanians undead)
15. Lizardmen (Aztects but they're lizards, have this great plan to stop Hell/Chaos that sucks)

Each Race's Playstyle

A lot to learn, a lot to try and choose from, but let's take it easy, step by step, so you can make your mind what to play first and know how to play them.

Disclaimer: There is no wrong answer specifically, but there are ones that can make the game harder to learn. Factions are not created equal, some require very specific tactics to work.

1. Playstyle

Aggressive (rush army):
- Norsca
- Greenskins (You don't like thinking and just like to charge? so do they)
- Vampire Counts
- Beastmen
- Warriors of Chaos

Defensive (wait for them to come):
- Vampire Coast (lots of gunpowder units)
- The Empire (the most balanced faction, Hellstorm Rocket artillery)
- Dwarves (very OP on defense, the defenseest defense faction)
- Skaven (laughably bad infantry, laughably good weapons team)
- Wood Elves (archers move while shooting)

Flexible:
- High Elves (the most balanced elves faction, Dragons)
- Tomb Lords
- Bretonnia (Cavalry everywhere, attack from everywhere, micromanage everything)
- Lizardmen
- Dark Elves

The aggressive factions are best at charging down enemy quickly, attacking, not really messing around with missle and artillery. The defensive factions use missle and artillery taking their time wearing the opponent down, forcing them to come to you. The flexible factions are kind of flexible and could do either of these.

As a general rule, whoever has the most artillery is usually going to be the one on the defensive. In multiplayer it's the Dwarves, 9/10 cases it's the Dwarves.

But these are just the best strategies with them, pretty much every faction can be aggressive or defensive if you would rather play that way with them. The only exceptions are Vampire Counts who can't play defensive because they don't have any good missile and artillery units, and the Dwarves who can't play aggressively because they don't have good speed, good cavalry and or any good flanking units.

But outside these 2 honorable mentions, experiment away with whatever playstyle suits you. Rememer that usually the one with less artillery/missile units has to attack the one with more artillery/missle units, otherwise the enemy will just wear him down in prolonged combat.

Each Race's Units Focus

Ok, so now you decided on a playstyle, but do you like playing more with large units or small numerous units?

There are some monster heavy factions where you can have a lot of fun with all the monsters, some factions with a lot of good firepower that will allow you to dominate range. While some factions are very good with the cavalry. Some are good at being sneaky like ambush and such.

2. Units Focus

Monster-heavy:
- Norsca
- Greenskins
- Vampire Counts
- Beastmen
- Warriors of Chaos
- Lizardmen
- Dark Elves
- Vampire Coast
- Tomb Kings

Firepower:
- High Elves
- Vampire Coast
- Skaven
- The Empire
- Wood Elves (very good archers army)
- Dwarves (best turtle race with arty)

Cavalry:
- Warriors of Chaos
- The Empire
- Dark Elves
- Vampire Counts
- High Elves
- Bretonia (specialized in cavarly, very weak infantry but one of the best cav in the game)

Sneaky:
- Wood Elves
- Skaven
- Beastmen
- Greenskins

If you want to use a lot of firepower and missiles, you're not going to play the Vampire Counts. If you want to hammer the enemy with cavalry you're not going to want to play the Skaven.

II. WHAT RACE TO LEARN FIRST?

Empire Artillery Turtle

You can use these tactics, or you can not, your choice.

The most popular factions currently in 2023 are the Empire & Dwarves. This section is going to go more in-depth about these 2 only.

Although the Empire & Dwarves are the most popular picks, if you want to learn the battles well I would recommend avoiding playing the Empire & Dwarves. Not because they are very good in multiplayer (they are, but not broken) but because the AI is very stupid in singleplayer. Due to very good artillery, you can turtle your way in any battle.

Instead, I would recommend having High Elves (just like the game!), Tomb Kings or the Lizardmen for your first Warhammer armies for a more well-rounded experience. You can use everything with the Empire & Dwarves too, but you'll probably just take the artillery.

Don't let me tell you what to do, if you want to play the Empire then play the Empire. But if you really want to learn Total War I would recommend a more overall balanced army so you don't have exploits like this that is also easy to play.

Why wouldn't I recommend the Empire & Dwarves? You can pretty much cheese the game by standing in the corner and spamming artillery taking advantage of a weak AI.

1. The Empire

The Empire has a pretty well-rounded roaster to pick from. With their infantry being slightly below average and their cavalry being slightly above average (definetly good, but nowhere near FAIR BRETONNIA! level of cavalry).

Their infantry isn't great, and needs a lot of support heroes and archers and micro-intensive stuff to keep them going.

This of course is very difficult for newer players so they'll move away from the infantry. What they'll find is that their infantry is pretty smashed early on, their frontlines aren't holding on very long and they don't know why. It's probably because they are not buffing them or support them with a lord or warrrior priest to help them out.

So without a strong infantry, what does the Empire have? cavalry. Cavalry is good for the Empire, it's some of the best in the game but not the best. But a lot of cavalry can be a lot of micro for a newer player. So he'll eventually find the other option.

Artillery. Having like 10 units of artillery because the Empire has great artillery. Helstorm Rocket Battery is just insane. If you want to win with the Empire on legendary just spam Helstorm Rocket Battery and have other units to defend them.

But that's not really playing Total War, just taking advantage of a weak AI. A good player in multiplayer will never let you get away with that "exploit".

You're probably blowing the enemy army up to pieces before they can even reaches you, which it may be fun for 1 battle or 2, but you're not going to learn anything about how to play Total War. You're just learning how to stand in a corner and unleash hell. You are just blowing off stuff that's descending on you, before it reaches you.

So yeah, with the Empire, just remember that your infantry is a little weaker than average and will likely need support of heroes or other units but your artillery totally kicks posteriors. That's not to say they should be played as a turtle race (although you can definitely do that), the Empire's cavalry although slightly slower than average (the average is 75, they are 66) can totally kick posteriors as they are quite tanky as powerful (although not on Bretonnia's level and arguably Vampire Count's Blood Knights) once they get into action, and your archers and gunners are very good.

Dwarves Artillery Turtle

2. Dwarves

Take everything I said about the Empire's turtle strategy and multiply it by 2. The Empire has that as a great option, although they're much more versatille, the Dwarves are designed for that.

Unlike the Empire's below average infantry, Dwarves' infantry line is one of the best, super tanky and super easy to play against AI. They lack speed, but more than make up for this in ressistance and armor.

You can easily box yourself in with artillery in the back and ranged units in the middle, force the AI to come to you and you've won. The AI likely makes huge blob and doesn't avoid any damage. Their units in general also have a lot of leadership and a lot of melee defense.

The Dwarves are basically masters of defense. No other faction can grind out the enemy and outlast them that much. With other factions like High Elves you can pull up a lot more tactics. Because you have decent infantry, decent cavalry, decent archers.

Dwarves just do one thing and they do it well. Dwarves are mostly artillery and slow but good infantry units, archers are decent but not the star, pretty much every other factions has a good mix of different kind of units. There are excections like Vampire Counts on missile or Bretonnia on infantry, but it's hard to think of a race as inflexible with their playstyle as the Dwarves. Which, being inflexible is fitting for the Dwarves. (I just got my name in the book of Grudges, you'll understand what I mean once you play the Dwarves campaign)

Simply put, the Dwarves are very easy to play even in multiplayer on lower levels. The Dwarves are not good to learn first because again with turtle artillery they will carry you and deny you a lot of tactics that are used by other factions.

Remember that tactic you can do with the Empire because the AI is too dumb to notice? Basically get artillery and just box yourself in? Get that tactic and raise it to 11 and you got the Dwarves. At least the Empire has weak infantry, the Dwarves don't. In fact, the Dwarves have some of the best infantry in the game.

They are a race specifically designed for that. Their very thing is that. Lowest speed in the game, tankyest infantry in the game, best artillery in the game. In multiplayer, you never try to outduel Dwarven artillery with your own, Organ Guns and Cannons are just pure hell, defend them with Ironbreakers and laugh while the enemy tries to get in.

Take notes AI! How to shutdown Dwarves or turtling using Empire in multiplayer? How do you counter-play them? Load up on anti-infantry. Anything with high armor piercing and bonus vs. infantry is almost guaranteed to have a favorable matchup against most of the Dwarves army. Foot Squires, Squig Herd, Doomflayers, Tomb Scorpions, Mournguls, etc.

Their weakness are no cavalry or monsters meaning no flanking options. Being flanked by a Dwarf is like being beaten by an old lady. Where as the Empire has flanking options, and the Dwarves have slow infantry. Where as the Empire doesn't.

So you can pretty much move around however you want with the Empire, but you can't do that with the Dwarves. Another weakness is that they have no magic, their magic is focused on making their tanky units even more tanky. And again, the Empire has magic.

So the Empire, even if they can use the same artillery turtle they have a much more flexible playstyle due to weaker infantry but compensating with speed, cavalry, magic and overall flexibility in the game. The Dwarves don't, just wait out with your Ironbreakers and defeat the enemy with Organ Guns and Cannon.

To beat the Dwarves, simply rush the Dwarves (just like the AI!). You can't out-artillery them, and in a skirmish fight you will lose, Dwarf players really love it when you take your time. Ok, rush them, but not like the AI. Protect your powerful units from Dwarves ranged units, while trying to outmanouver and flank them (because remember low mobility, lowest speed in the game) and engage their ranged units with your infantry. Disrupting those units with your cavalry, flying units, magic is very important. If you can get rid of Dwarves ranged units you pretty much have the win in the bag.

And for their infantry, bring armor-piercing units, because Dwarves really don't have a lot of options there. If they try to box, pick a side and attack with all your strength there, there's no point to attack from all 4 sides. It will force them to come out of their box leaving them exposed, and then you can flank since they lack any mobility options to counter your cavalry.

High Elves, Tomb Kings, Lizardmen

Ok, so I said I wouldn't recommend starting the game with the Empire or Dwarves simply because their artillery turtle game is too good and you can win the game without really playing the game.

So what should you play instead?

As I said before, these are only suggestion, but for an easy to learn and very balanced roaster I would recommend either: High Elves, Tomb Kings, Lizardmen.

High Elves: Flexible, Firepower, Cavalry.
Tomb Kings: Flexible, Monster-heavy.
Lizardmen: Flexible, Monster-heavy.

The only odd one here is Tomb Kings but not for battle reasons.

These 3 factions have pretty much everything and it's up to you how you use them. Yes, it says that the High Elves are "Firepower, Cavalry" and Tomb Kings with Lizardmen are "Monster-heavy" but that's pretty much their main thing, their winning ticket, they have many other things beside that and you don't win by spamming firepower, cavalry and monsters so you will be forced to use the whole roaster of your army even against a dumb AI.

High Elves. High Elves are in essence the Empire but the late game great artillery is replaced with late game great Dragons. All 3 elves factions (High Elves, Dark Elves, Wood Elves) have units with sligthly less HP and deal slightly more damage than of other races. They are more of a glass-cannon than the human races. So you'll be able to hold the line less but also deal damage more. Elves in every fantasy setting are a bit more glass-cannon than other races, weaker physically but expert fighters, that's the case here.

Tomb Kings. The Tomb Kings have a weird mechanic that your unit limit is based on how much recuritment buildings for that unit you have, but is about their campaign not the battle. In battle they fight just like explained, balanced. If you are willing to overlook the fact that their armies cost no upkeep but you have to build more military units to recruit the same unit of that type, which is an unique campaign mechanic just for them, you will find that in battle they are quite balanced and will engage you in the total Total War experience. And the fact that instead of routing they die like all undead (Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Vampire Coast) will train you to keep your units from routing. You can learn how to manage rout later with High Elves and Lizardmen. Better to learn the essence of making a good fight first.

Lizardmen. And, finally (may the Gods forgive me for saying this) the Lizardmen. I really don't like the Lizardmen but have to admit they are a very good starter race. Despite fanboys complaining that "Lizardmen got no love in Warhammer 2" they got the highest amount of love in Warhammer 2, more than any other faction. You have 7 legendary lords to pick from, more than any other faction. They have a very balanced roaster with a focus on monsters. The only downside is that you're playing as the Lizardmen.

Final disclaimer (already said it 3 times), pick whatever faction you want first, these are just the 3 that I recommend because playing them will give you the essence of Total War. And then that can be translated easily in any other faction. Where as the opposite isn't always true.

III. UNITS

Best Campaign Units for Each Faction

In case you just want to recruit the best units, here are some tier lists for the campaign from LegendofTotalWar (check him out on Youtube).

The top class is basically a "doomstack". A doomstack is when you can win by only, or mostly depending on the case, just having that unit in your army. It's usually a very powerful level 5 unit, but not always. A are always good, B definetly punch above their weight, C is average, D is below and E-F if there is don't bother. Or do bother on lower difficulties where you try to use all possible types of units.

Keep in mind that these are only the best units for the campaign, not best units in general. Why? because in campaign you have: recruitment cost, upkeep cost, you need to build that building to recruit that unit. LegendofTotalWar looks at how convenient these factors are beside the efficacy of that unit in battle. A unit may be very good, but if it's very expensive don't bother. Other units on the other hand may not be as good but their cost-efficiency ratio is amazing so that's why you must recruit many of them. They do a lot and pay little. You don't have this in multiplayer, so keep in mind that these tier lists don't translate well in multiplayer battles.

Just look at what units in game match the tier list pictures. Eventually, check out LegendofTotalWar's [faction name] Unit Roster Tier Ranking videos if you want a more in-depth explanation for why that is as well as more insight into the faction.

High Elves:

Dark Elves:

Lizardmen:

Skaven:

Tomb Kings:

Vampire Coast:

Warhammer 1 Races:

Empire:

Bretonnia:

Vampire Counts:
*Skeletons are S tier and A tier because there's a technology that makes them upkeep free so you can basically spam whole armies with them.

Dwarves:

Orcs:

Norsca:

Warriors of Chaos:

Beastmen:

Wood Elves:

Some Multiplayer Armies Composition

These are merely some suggestions, not the definitive way to build your army in multiplayer. Adjust them to your playstyle or ignore them altogether if you have a better idea. And in the campaign, just look up at the best campaign units for each faction and doomstack.

These are from the perspective of a multiplayer beginner, so they are designed to be easy to play with while also still being decent in combat.

1. Empire
2. Bretonnia
3. Vampire Counts
4. Warriors of Chaos
5. Norsca
6. Dwarves
7. Greenskins
8. Wood Elves
9. Beastmen
10. High Elves
11. Dark Elves
12. Skaven
13. Vampire Coast
14. Tomb Kings
15. Lizardmen

IV. TIER LISTS

Singleplayer Campaign Tier List

Why specifically "Singleplayer Campaign" tier list? Because a race can be very good in battle but have a crap economy, or be very bad in battle but have a very good economy. So it doesn't matter if you are weak, if you are able to provide more armies than the enemy can handle you will probably win.

This is an extreme example, things are never that black&white but this tier list is a combination of the battle capabilities of each race combined with their campaign circumstances. This is why it will differ so much from the other tier list I will make "Multiplayer Battle" tier list which is just the battles, with no consideration for the campaign. And I specifically mentioned "Multiplayer Battle" because if you want to play singleplayer battle, just use the Dwarves and hide in a corner.

Yes, the same tactics from multiplayer also work in singleplayer, but it doesn't translate vice-versa simply because the AI is too dumb. You can bit both the AI and a good player with Bretonnia hit & run but you can't beat a good player with just standing around in the corner with Dwarves / the Empire.

Singleplayer Campaign

Tier S:
- High Elves (insane money, highly defensible island)
- Dark Elves (insane money)
- Skaven (insane mechanics for 3/6 lords: Clan Skryre, Clan Eshin, Clan Moulder)

Tier A:
- Beastmen
- Wood Elves

Tier B:
- Bretonnia
- Greenskins
- Dwarves
- Vampire Coast
- Tomb Lords

Tier C:
- Lizardmen
- The Empire

Tier D:
- Vampire Counts

Tier F:
- Norsca (they both hardly got any updates since Warhammer 1)
- Warriors of Chaos (are the main event of Warhammer 3 so they're buffed there but here hard)

Multiplayer Battle Tier List

Say you want to touch the multiplayer, play some of those battles or even a 1v1 campaign. The races in Warhammer are fairly balanced which is a miracle given how diverse they are, the worst faction is still decent and can beat the first faction in certain conditions.

In Warhammer it's not about "this race is strong, this race is weak" but more about "this race has these counters, this race has these counters". If anything, what makes a race powerful or bad is how many counters it has and by how many races it generally gets countered. Generally, because the army composition matters a lot. Just because you have a race that "counters" the enemy it doesn't mean you will counter the enemy, it really depends on your army composition.

For example Bretonnia is very good against Wood Elves because Bretonnia relies a lot on Cavalry while Wood Elves rely a lot on missile, it's just a matter of bad match up. So don't take these as set in stone, but only to make a general idea, of which races generally have few counters and which races generally have many, here's the tier list of the top multiplayer factions. It will probably remain this way forever because with Warhammer 3 launched things will never change.

This tier list is from the perspective of the average player. So no e-sports tier list just the strongest and the weakest factions for the average multiplayer player.

Multiplayer Tier List

Tier S:
- Beastmen (former F tier in Warhammer 1)
- Wood Elves
- Warriors of Chaos
- Dark Elves

Tier A:
- Lizardmen
- Dwarves
- Greenskins

Tier B:
- Bretonnia
- The Empire
- Vampire Counts

Tier C:
- Tomb Kings
- Skaven
- Vampire Coast

Tier D:
- High Elves
- Norsca

Fun fact: Wood Elves were always annoying. Their thing is that their units are very good units but very bad economy, and in multiplayer battle you don't have to deal with the economy. But the Beastmen were by far the worst race, fighting them was a joke, and the internet was full of memes how the devs would patch them and make them the best race in the game. In Warhammer 2, the devs listened to the memes.

V. CONTROLS

Basic Control, Magic, Armies Build

Think of this as an extra in-depth multiplayer guide. You can totally play the game without this guide, but this guide will make you a much better player. Sit back, relax, and learn Total War Warhammer.

Control:
CTRL + A -> Select all your units.
CTRL + LMB -> Select as many units as you want.
CTRL + LMB (double click) -> Select all units of the same type.

ALT + LMB (drag) -> Move your units in formation.
ALT + CTRL + LMB (drag) -> Rotate your units while moving in formation.
ALT + LMB (drag) + attack orders -> Attack with your units in formation at the same time.

ALT + Number Keys -> Instantly select your magic with selected unit.
SHIFT + Number Keys -> Instantly select your abilities with selected unit.

Magic cast + Hold LMB -> Change the direction of the attack. (can be cancelled by right click)
Area Magic cast + Hold ALT -> Freely move the spell.

BACKSPACE -> halt, useful if you accidentaly gave the wrong order.
SHIFT + RMB (drag) -> Drag your own costum unit path.
SHIFT + RMB -> Create checkpoints where you unit can go to, the last one can be attack.
ALT + RMB (attack) -> Forces a range unit to melee attack.

ALT -> Manually aim with artillery.

CTRL + NUMBER -> Create control group, there are 2 types: locked and unlocked. In locked group everything will move in formation at the speed of the slowest unit. In unlocked they forget about formations.

Magic:

Tactics:

How to Build Armies:
1. Empire

2. Bretonnia

3. Vampire Counts

4. Warriors of Chaos

5. Norsca

6. Dwarves

7. Greenskins

8. Wood Elves

9. Beastmen

10. High Elves

11. Dark Elves

12. Skaven

13. Vampire Coast

14. Tomb Kings

15. Lizardmen

VI. EACH RACE IN MORE DEPTH

Unique Race Playstyle (1-9)

Here I go more in-depth for each race's playstyle

For the basics, see Each Race's Playstyle and Each Race's Units Focus.

Ok, so you read this guide, but still can't pick a faction? oh boy, you're a hard one to please. Is your name Karen by any chance? just pick a faction you like best thematically as long as it's the Vampire Coast. Undead Pirates, what's there not to like?

Nevermind, I have to bring the artillery, not the Helstorm Rocket Battery that you can spam with the Empire Artillery Turtle strategy, I'll go further. Rather than a general description for each race, I'll describe their unique faction playstyle. If you can't decide after that then I'm sorry for you, you are sad and you should stop playing this game.

1. The Empire (Swiss Knife Army feat. Badass Artillery and Tank)
- Can SUMMON THE ELECTOR COUNTS
- Unlimited meme material
- Well rounded jack of all trades army
- Below average infantry, needs heroes or magic buffs to support them
- Good archers
- Lack monsters
- Have excellent cavalry
- Have excellent artillery
- Relatively cheap in terms of units cost
- Very good magic with tons of hero magic school options to pick from
- Very good hero selection
- Can play all playstyles
- Easy to learn, easy to master.

2. Bretonnia (Cavarly Army feat. Decent Archers and Artillery, terrible infantry)
- The best cavalry in the game.
- Cheap and one of the worst infantry in the game, even top tear infantry is bad.
- Decent archers, not great not terrible.
- Each lord must complete a "grail quest" to be able to have cavalry at discount price.
- Lack monsters
- Limited selection of magic
- Playstyle: hit & run, attrition, rush with mass cav, artillery spread.
- You need mobility and your cav micro on point to play effectively.
- Easy to learn, hard to master.

3. Vampire Counts (Rush Undead Faction feat. No Archers but Cavalry and Monsters and many weak minions like Zombies and Skeletons for the meat shield)
- Units unbreakable, don't run from a fight, lose morale harder, but when they do, disintegrate.
- Most units have pretty low stats but rely on healing
- Have no missile units at all
- Have most healing of any of the undead faction
- Excellent melee infantry
- Good magic chariots
- Some support chariots and some damage focused chariots
- Very good cavalry
- Good monsters
- Lore of vampires is the best lore of magic in the game.
- Playstyle: always a rush style, flank with the cavalry.
- Can play more of an attrition grind or more straight up rush
- You need to learn how to get rid of missile units.
- Medium to learn, hard to master.

4. Warriors of Chaos (Heavy Chaos Faction, what if we take the Empire but make their infantry stronger add monsters and make them a rush race instead?)
- Excellent infantry
- Excellent monsters
- Decent light cavalry
- Good heavy cavalry
- Good chariots
- Limited missiles, even more so than Norsca
- Relatively expensive in terms of units cost
- Good magic selection
- Their casters tend to be tanky, more expensive but with better stats
- Playstyle: rush, but with the Hellcanon you can do some artillery spread style or hit&run
- Out of the 3 chaos factions they are the easiest to learn.
- Very easy to learn, easy to master, terrible campaign conditions..

5. Norsca (Light Chaos Faction, hear me out, we take the Chaos but instead of strong we make them fast, we also keep the monsters but give them far more mobility)
- Some of the best monsters in the game.
- Very good speed for their units
- Many of their units have frostbite that slows enemies
- Decent infantry
- The worst lord selection in the game
- No heavy cavarly
- No artillery
- Decent light cavalry
- Mobility
- A good magic selection
- Even has a monstrous infantry caster
- Plastyle: rush, due to limited missile and no arty, can do some hit & run builds.
- Difficult for beginners to learn.
- Easier than Beastmen but you need to learn how to manage your mobility well.
- Medium to learn, hard to master.

6. Dwarves (Defensiest Defensive Tanky Army, tanky infantry w. huge armor and leadership, low mobility, very good artillery, do I need to draw you what to do with this type of combo?)
- Excellent infantry
- High armor
- High leadership
- Some of the best missiles in the game
- No cavalry
- The slowest faction in the game
- Only a handful of fast units
- Mostly relies on infantry, artillery and skirmishers
- No monsters
- No magic
- Some nice support abilities and are magic resistant
- Playstyle: artillery camp, can rush with some notable all Vanguard builds
- With high melee defense and armor can grind in an attrition fight as well
- Decent for new players to learn
- You need to make sure you don't pick up and bad habbits because of their unique playstyle
- Learn target priority
- Easy to learn, easy to master.

7. Greenskins (Rush and damage but low lead, let's take the Dwarves, make them more aggressive, more of a rush army, but give them low leadership and high damage)
- Low Leadership
- High damage
- Best light cavalry
- Poor heavy cavalry
- Excellent infantry
- Good monsters
- Not so good lord or heroes
- Can field a lot of monsters with probably the second best horde faction in the game.
- One of the best Vanguard factions with tons and tons of options for Vanguard
- Only have 2 lore of magic both unique to them plus lore of death with a specific lord.
- The unique lore of magic are very powerful and work well with the Greenskin units
- Can play almost every playstyle except attrition fights due to lack of healing and leadership
- Very difficult for new players to learn
- Certain styles definetly with the rush build are easier to learn than others.
- You will need to learn your match-ups pretty well as Greenskins get scared easily low leader.
- You will need to learn to manage routing units, especially the goblins.
- Medium to learn, hard to master.

Greenskins are basically "what if we make these guys really powerful but they get scared easily?"

8. Wood Elves (Archers Army, fire archers while moving while fire archers while moving while fire archers while moving and you have some powerful trees with lots of health and armor)
- The second best missile faction in the game.
- Very fast and very light like the Beastmen
- Only with a handful of high armor
- Play more into a hit & run or kite style
- Some decent monsters that allow you some rush-oriented builds
- You can definetly catch people off-guard especially with the speed of your advance
- Due to low armor and low HP they are one of the hardest races to learn.
- You do have to know your match-up
- Choose only the right engagements
- You need all of the Total War skills to play Wood Elves effectively.
- Hard to learn, very hard to master.

9. Beastmen (I am speed, we lack armor and leadership, but boy are we fast, good monsters and have the lore of the wild, we have good archers and the rest of our army is next to yours)
- One of the fastest factions in the game.
- Has one of the best Vanguard selections
- Excellent summons with a variety of monsters
- Powerful bestigors and minotaurs, jabber and ghorgon
- Low armor
- Low leadership
- Good light cavalry
- Excelent chariots
- Pretty bad lord selection
- No heavy cavalry
- Limited magic
- A very powerful unique lore of magic, lore of the wild
- Playstyle: with their fast speed playing into more of a rush
- You can also do a bit of hit & run and with the Sai Gore a bit of artillery spread
- All Chaos factions rush, but Beastmen have the best missile options.
- Very difficult for beginners to learn because of speed and low leadership.
- Relies on terrain more so than any other faction.
- You will need to learn how to control mobile fast-moving units.
- Hard to learn, hard to master.

Unique Races Playstyle (10-15)

10. High Elves (The Civillized Army who flies and colonizes, Swiss Knife like the Empire but flying monsters instead of Artillery and a little bit more squishy but gives more damage)
- Generally untrustworthy because they are elves.
- High Stats and leadership
- Low HP (all elven units: high & dark & wood elves generally have less hp but more damage)
- All 3 elves factions are generally glass cannons with high stats and leadership but low HP
- Good armor
- The most expensive units in the game
- Two of the best casters: Tecles and Alario
- Some of the strongest flying monsters in the game
- A reasonably well-rounded roaster
- Decent artillery
- Decent infantry
- Decent cavalry
- Decent archers
- Very easy to learn, easy to master.

11. Dark Elves (Offensive Elves, high elves who are honest, slave economy, same as High Elves but with armor pierce and monsters over flying monsters, more rush but still balanced)
- High Stats and leadership
- Low HP
- Lower range on most of their missile units
- More armor piercing than the high elves
- Good monsters
- Good magic selection with a unique lore
- Can play into any playstyle
- Are a bit harder to learn but this applies to all elves as low HP isn't too forgiving for mistakes
- You'll definetly need to know your match-up knowledge
- And know how to choose the right engagements when playing as elves.
- Easy to learn, easy to master.

12. Skaven (The Horde of Rats, yes-yes, Ikit Claw! Ikit Claw! imagine numbers of the undead but for ranged units with lots and I mean lots of armor-pierce, monsters, disposable units)
- High numbers
- Terrible leadership
- Have fast infantry
- Lack proper cavalry or mobility
- Instead relies on excellent missiles, monsters and chariots
- Their unique only lores allows for good summonings
- All their characters are pretty cost-effective for the most part
- Playstyle: artillery and spread, attrition by endless summons and endless numbers
- They also have some pretty mean rush builds as well
- Difficult to learn as you'll have to manage lots of routing units and learn targeting priority.
- Hard to learn, hard to master.

13. Vampire Coast (Archers Undead Faction, ah, yes, you picked best faction, congrats! lots of guns so you have to position your missile, good range, good monsters, arty, lore of vampires)
- Units unbreakable, but disintegrate (all undead do: Vampire Counts & Coast, Tomb Kings)
- Lots and lots of numbers of missiles and really excellent damage
- Decent monsters
- Terrible infantry
- Are generally very slow
- Some fast units but no real cavalry or chariots
- Instead rely on missile units and artillery
- The best lore of magic in the game with lore of vampires
- Their own unique lore, lore of deeps
- Playstyle: can play into rush-style builds although they favor more the artillery camp builds
- With lots of missle units
- Can grind you down with attrition as well
- An easier faction to learn, but you need to be careful not to pick up any bad habbits
- You will need to learn targeting priority
- Easy to learn, medium to master.

14. Tomb Kings (Well-rounded Undead, different recrutiment in campaign, solid style in battle, monsters and chariots, but generally can do whatever you want. Settra doesn't serve)
- No heavy cavalry
- Excellent monsters
- Excellent chariots
- Less healing than other undead
- Lacking lore of vampires
- Have their own unique lore that gives a little bit of healing and some other powerful spells
- Playstyle: they can pretty much do it all with a very flexible army.
- They are one of the easiest factions if not the easiest faction in the game to learn.
- Because of their flexibility.
- The fact that they're relatively forgiving with their big armored tanky monsters.
- Really you'll just need to know the funamentals of Total War to play them well.
- Positioning and general map knowledge
- Best faction for new players.
- Very easy to learn, very easy to master.

15. Lizardmen (Monsters Army, this has been the worst faction in the history of the United States, best monsters, good infantry, decent speed and leadership, good missile, good magic)
- The best monsters in the game
- Decent infantry
- With mixed speed and leadership
- Some having high leadership and low speed, other low leadership and high speed
- Good missiles with all of them having either poision or fire damage
- Definetly can field a decent horde-style army
- Excellent magic with top-tier casters like Madzamundi and Slann
- Playstyle: grind and attrition style fights, rush you with monsters, kite with posioned missile.
- An easier faction to learn for beginners.
- Mostly you'll need matchup specific knowledge and because of slow speed positioning and timing.
- Very easy to learn, hard to master.

VII. CAMPAIGNS

Eye of the Vortex Story Missions

Eye of the Vortex is the campaign on the left that you unlock by simply having Warhammer 2. It is the smaller (although not that small when compared to Mortal Empires) and story-driven campaign, each lord will have specific tasks to do with unique game mechanics that need to be completed to win the campaign.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't tell you what objectives each lord has from the select menu. So rather than selecting each lord and seeing the intro to see his objectives, here are the objectives of every Eye of the Vortex lord.

I was a bit dissapointed that not each lord has its unique campaign with unique challenges, but at least some have, there is some variety there.

Every lord may have different side-objectives to get special powers, even if their main campaign is the same as of others. For example, Imrik of the High Elves has the same Ritual main objective, but he also has side objectives where you tame and defeat dragons and in return you get... dragons.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: 3 of the evil factions - Dark Elves, Skaven and Vampire Coast - have a "well received" loyalty mechanic, this means that generals may revolt if their loyality goes to low. You can keep it high by winning battles with them, share the loot with them or whatever depending on the specific general.

High Elves:
1. Tyrion -> Complete the Rituals (main good guy; tutorial campaign)
2. Teclis -> Complete the Rituals
3. Alith Anar - Complete the Rituals (unique mechanics, sneaky elves)
4. Alarielle the Radiant -> Complete the Rituals (most OP broken elf)
5. Eltharion the Grim -> Defeat the Broken Axe (unique feud with the Orc Warboss & unique prison)
6. Imrik -> Complete the Rituals (you collect dragons as a side job in some quests)

Dark Elves:
1. Malekith -> Complete the Rituals (main bad guy; TAKE BACK THE DONUT ULTHUAN!)
2. Morathi -> Complete the Rituals
3. Lokhir Fellheart -> Complete the Rituals
4. Crone Hellebron -> Complete the Rituals
5. Malus Darkblade -> Rise of Darkness (unique feud with the Skavens & the demon in your head, no joke, there is a demon in your head)
6. Rakarth -> Complete the Rituals (unique mechanic, collects beats like Imrik collects dragons)

Lizardmen:
1. Lord Mazdamundi -> Complete the Rituals
2. Kroq-Gar -> Complete the Rituals
3. Tiktaq'to -> Complete the Rituals
4. Tehenhauin -> Complete the Rituals
5. Nakai the Wanderer -> Huntsmarshal's Expedition (unique feud with the colonists & horde faction)
6. Gor-Rok -> Complete the Rituals
7. Oxyotl -> Heart of Darkness (unique feud with completing visions of the old ones & teleport on the map)

Skaven:
1. Queek Headtaker -> Complete the Rituals (CLAN MOORS TRIUMPAHANT! YES-YES #Loyal)
2. Lord Skrolk -> Complete the Rituals (Play Sabaton - Father ; toxic gas ; while playing them)
3. Tretch Craventail -> Complete the Rituals
4. Ikit Claw -> Complete the Rituals (Literally the most fun, you have nukes, 10/10 recommend)
5. Deathmaster Snikch -> Rise of Darkness (unique feud with the Dark Elves & being ninjas)
6. Throt the Unclean -> The Ultimate Harvest (unique feud with the Wood Elves & making mutants)

Tomb Kings:
1. Settra the Imperishable -> Collect the Books of Nagash
2. Arkhan the Black -> Collect the Books of Nagash (All Tomb Kings hate you because you support the guy who made you all undead)
3. Grand Hierophant Khatep -> Collect the Books of Nagash
4. High Queen Khalida -> Collect the Books of Nagash

Vampire Coast:
1. Luthor Harkon -> Defeat the Legendary Beast Amanar (Fix your broken mind)
2. Count Noctilus -> Defeat the Legendary Beast Amanar (Amazing spawn point)
3. Aranessa Saltspite -> Defeat the Legendary Beast Amanar
4. Cylostra Direfin -> Defeat the Legendary Beast Amanar

The Empire:
1. Markus Wulfhart -> Destroy the Lizardmen and win 100 Acclaim. (COLONIZE ALL THE KINGDOMS!)

Bretonnia:
1. Repanse de Lyonesse -> Destroy either the Tomb Kings or Vampire Coast. (COLONIZE CRUSADE ALL THE KINGDOMS!)

Orcs:
1. Grom the Paunch -> Unique feud with Eltharion the Grim. (unique mechanic, eat. A lot)

Wood Elves:
1. Sisters of Twiglight -> Awaken and protect the woods. (unique gameplay really)

Beastmen:
1. Taurox -> Destroy a lot of settlments including Oxyotl with his visions. (hunt the guy who teleports)

Dwarfs:
1. Thorek Ironbrow -> Find lost artifacts.

Mortal Empires Story Missions

Mortal Empires is the campaign on the right that you unlock by owning both Warhammer 1 and Warhammer 2. It basically merges the maps of both games together and you can also play factions from the first game, turning Warhammer 1 into a DLC for Warhammer 2.

Mortal Empires is the bigger map but it's just a sandbox campaign. No matter what you play as, you have no pre-defined objectives. Your objectives are basically:
- Do whatever.
- Conquer the map.

There are 2 main events that will happen in an Mortal Empires campaign:

- Chaos Invasion (unless one of the players plays as Chaos) -> Somewhere around turn 140 - 160 or even faster if the players expand fast enough, a huge amount of chaos armies will spawn in Chaos Wastes (the top-right of the map) that will invade the rest of the lands, a smaller force half the size of that, of Chaos, will also spawn in the Icefrost Glacier (the top-left of the map) and again invade all the surrounding lands. They will do massive damage. The higher the difficulty the bigger the armies. You can defeat them by defeating all the armies of Chaos so fighting everyone of them or faster by killing their 4 leaders: Archaon, Sigvald, Kholek, and Sarthorael. If you do that, no matter how many armies of Chaos there are, they will despawn.

- Wars of the Empires (Total War) -> This is not much of a scripted event as it is a natural consequence of the game. As you progress in the game factions of the same race will likely confederate into 1 faction (just like you do) and expand, this means that by the time you have a colossal empire other factions will also have colossal empire, so you will have a battle of the titans where huge empires fight huge empires. Shortly after this time, good factions and evil factions tend to form a huge alliance each, so you will have a huge good vs evil total war spanning the whole map.

My Recommendation for Campaigns 1

1) Tyrion - Eye of the Vortex (no DLC)

No surprise here, the Tutorial Guy.

This should be your first campaign because it's the easiest. You play in the donut (Atlantis/Ulthuan) and all you have to do is destroy the starting faction you are at war with, build good relations and maybe confederate other High Elves factions (remember, High Elves have a race mechanics that allow you to improve relations), and mainly just defend while you complete the ritual. Maybe also try to get The Sword of Khaine while you're there.

High Elves are one of the 3 races that are the easiest to play with, without having spammable artillery like the Empire, so it's a great race to get you into the game. It has the same flexible army composition like the Empire but instead of artillery late game you have dragons. And if you want Tyrion but on steroids, Alarielle the Radiant. She also starts in the donut and basically has to do the same thing but it's much more powerful. She requires the The Queen and the Crone DLC and is the same but just much better.

Other notable High Elves are Alith Anar if you want to play with sneaky units and fight the Dark Elves in the own homeland. But he has the default Rituals objectives and the legendary lord himself is not that powerful. Imrik who starts far away from home but has some side objectives to tame and train your dragons, Train Your Dragon TM, but again, default Ritual. And, but this one requires The Warden and the Paunch DLC, batman, I mean Eltharion the Grim, you have some completely different campaign objectives as well as prison mechanics. You also start on the donut but like Tyrion and Alarielle aren't going to spend much time there.

Teclis is a good mage and that's it.


2) Malus Darkblade - Eye of the Vortex (The Shadow and the Blade DLC)

You are possesed by a demon and your missing is to bring back slaves to the Dark Elves mainland, need I say more? That's all I'm about to say, not going to spoil more. The downside is that it's a very difficult campaign, but a fun one.

If you want a no DLC version, try Rakarth, he has the same Rituals objectives as the others but has a special mechanic where he can recruit beasts, because he's Rakarth the beastmaster. Morathi has a really great starting city (because of a landmark you should build) and Malekith is the leader of the race but aside from being a very powerful legandary lord he is not that special.

Lokhir Fellheart is good with ships and Crone Hellebron is about Death Knights and Blood Voyages, you need to sacrifice slaves on a consistent basis.


3) Ikit Claw - Mortal Empires (The Prophet and the Warlock DLC)
Deathmaster Snitch - Eye of the Vortex / Mortal Empires (The Shadow and the Blade DLC)
Throt the Unclean - Eye of the Vortex / Mortal Empires (The Twisted and the Twilight DLC)

You know that Marilyn Monroe movie where she slept around to get TV roles? That's probably what the skavens did with the directors of Creative Assembly because these guys have by far the best mechanics in campaign. I don't normally like Skaven, either in gameplay or in lore, but these are just too fun. They really got the lion's share in fun mechanics.

I recommend Ikit Claw for Mortal Empire because he has a so much better position than in Eye of the Vortex, in Skavenblight, the capital of the Skaven in the old continent, from where he can attack the Empire.

With Ikit Claw you are master enginner, being able to buff everything mechanical and CREATE ATOMIC BOMBS. With Deathmaster Snitch, you play with an army of Skaven ninja, and Deathmaster is the only one that can permanently kill legendary lords. While Throt the Unclean is a master biologist. He makes experiments with his units, you can either make them the most buffed unit ever or the experiment go wrong and they become useless or braindead. EXPERIMENT! What Ikit is for machines, Throt is for flesh.

The Skaven are like your parents' favorite child and the developers were the parents. They are not OP (see above race tiers) but they have so many fun mechanics it's a blast to play with them, even if you don't like Skaven. If you want a no DLC version Lord Skrolk of Clan Pestilens has some interesting plague mechanics. I told you Skaven get all the cool stuff. The other 2 lords have no unique mechanics, they have all base Skaven mechanics but no unique mechanics to themselves so why have that when you could have more?


4) Count Noctilus - Eye of the Vortex (Faction DLC: Curse of the Vampire Coast)

One of the most interesting spawn positions on the map, right in the middle of the ocean. In an almost impenetrable semi-sunken fortress, really makes you feel like a pirate, an undead pirate.

Luthor Harkon starts in the jungle on a Vampire Coast, and has to balance his own mind as he got insane, my personal favourite, but I picked Count Noctilus because that's the community's favorite. Aranessa Saltspite starts in the Old World so she's cool if you want to invade the Empire as the Vampire Coast and Cylostra Direfin starts in the equivalent of Mexcio between the Dark Elves to the north and Lizardmen to the south and she wants to sink the donut because she died before she can sing for the king (talking about character motivation), can also build an opera house in Lothern, Tyrion's home town.


5) Archon the Black - Eye of the Vortex (Faction DLC: Rise of the Tomb Kings)

Everybody hates this guy because he loves the guy that caused all Tomb Kings to become.. Tomb Kings. And that's exactly why you should play him. As for Archon the Black himself, he is a hybrid between warrior and mage, good with both but master of none. As magic he has the Lore of Death which is better than Lore of Nehekara. His biggest downside is that he has no friends since he supports Nagash, one of the main evil guys of the Warhammer world. Nagash isn't in the game sadly, he's quite dead, but resurrection is a thing in this universe, maybe he'll be back, hopefully in the 3rd game.

Grand Hierophant Khatep starts in North America with mainly the Dark Elves as your enemies. But his not that special. And him as a legendary lord fighter is pretty weak. High Queen Khalida starts in Mortal Empires on the eastern side of Africa after the mountains, much like Grand Hierophant Khatep she is quite generic, which isn't bad, especially if you want a challenge. And Settra the Imperishable is the most powerful & memeable Tomb King. Archon is the most interesting campaign in my opinion, but Settra is the most powerful.


6) Marcus Wolfhart - Eye of the Vortex (DLC: The Hunter and the Beast)

One of the hardest campaigns in the game. Almost as hard as the Chaos campaigns. But very fun if you actually know the game and like a challenge. Colonizing ain't never easy.

Sadly, he's the only the Empire character in Eye of the Vortex, because the Empire is mainly in the Old World, he's just doing colonization here, which is a reason why this campaign is very difficult. But you can find the other Empire lords in the Mortal Empire trying to protect their home territory while not upsetting the other Empire Elector Counts, they are also on the list of recommended campaigns.

My Recommendation for Campaigns 2

7) Grom the Paunch -> Eye of the Vortex (DLC: The Warden and The Paunch)

Best orc experience in my opinion, unique game mechanics with food. Both Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires are good. He starts in Africa next to the Tomb Kings and Lizardmen in the Eye of the Vortex and in the middle of Bretonnia in the Mortal Empires making for a fun invasion campaign and very close to the High Elf Eltharion that you've got a beef with.

If you want to play another orc or don't have the DLC, Scarnik is a weak lord with a difficult campaign but you start right next to the Empire, so if you want to invade them that's cool. Ahzag the Slaughterer starts right next to Kislev which is easy picking but also right next to the Chaos Invasion so good luck with that, he also starts north of the Dwarves. Grimgor Ironhide is probably the most powerful 1 man army orc lord you can have. This guy becomes insanely powerful late game, a real orc. You also start in the thematic orc Badlands region. And Wurrzag da Great Green Prophet is also starting in the Badlands, in an even better position, surrounded everywhere by orcs, that you can tribal confederate by defeating their leaders in battle.

I'd say Grom the Paunch is the most fun because of his unique mechanics but Grimgor and Wurrzag are the easiest to play with because you start right in the middle of the Badlands where you can easily confederate other orc clans by defeating their leader in batttle and Grimgor is a 1 man army late game. Wurrzag isn't as strong as Grimgor but has the better starting location.


8) Sisters of the Twilight -> Eye of the Vortex (DLC: The Twisted and The Twilight)

The Wood Elves play different from everyone else, and the Sisters in general play different from other Wood Elves.

This is the only Wood Elves faction that also exists in Eye of the Vortex, but if you want the best Wood Elves legendary lord in general... it's also Sisters of the Twilight. They are generally, both the most fun and the most powerful Wood Elves faction.

Orion and Durthu start in Athel Loren, aka the "Everwood", this is by far the 2nd most defensible location in the entire game, second only to Count Noctilus undead pirate base in the middle of the ocean. But, unlike Count Noctilus's base, there are 5 settlements here that you can confederate, and the Wood Elves play a defensive playstyle so not only you have a very good defense, but you also, kind of mostly just have to defend to win the game. All Wood Elves got really good defense, but these 2 really get the cake.

Of the 2 of them. Orion despite being the "faction leader" is kind of generic, he buffs elves who are very good with range. Durthu buffs forest spirits which are very tanky and is a real tanky beast on the battlefield.

And finally Drycha, the evil wood elf. She is the Arkhan the Black of the Wood Elves. She starts in a forest in the middle of the Empire so you'll be fighting versus Empire and Vampire Counts any minute. She is the hardest to defend. And needs to invade Athel Loren to take back the Oak of Ages because Orion and Durthu stole her forest. She has very powerful forest spirits at the cost of elf units.


9) Karl Franz - Mortal Empires
Balthazar Gelt - Mortal Empires

You should play at least once Karl Franz in Mortal Empires.

Essentially what I'm saying here is "play the Empire". While Tyrion is THE campaign for the Eye of the Vortex, I think Karl Franz is THE campaign for the Mortal Empires.

Karl Franz is you want to be the boss, Balthazar Gelt if you want to help the boss and be a memelord "I AM SUPREME!". Essentially, the Empire is the Holy Roman Empire and your job is to unite the Empire while the Empire is attacked from all sides and worst of all you're dealing with bit**y lords (hints: don't ally Kislev; demand return in events; deal with vampires and Drycha asap, raze Grung Zint). This is Holy Roman Emperor simulator. Once you unite the whole Empire you're going to be very powerful (try not to do it by war, see the Elector Counts mechanic) and it feels like you're playing a completely different game. And then the Chaos Invasion comes to you. Chaos invades from 2 sides: a bigger force in the North-East corner of the map, and a 1/2 size force in the North-West corner of the map that the Dark Elves have to deal with. Guess which one you'll face? The only thing standing between you and Chaos is Kislev and Kislev will fall fast.

And you also have to deal with minor Orcs, Norscans, Beastmen, and Vampires inconveniences all the time. And Drycha, f**k Drycha. Imagine defending the Empire while also fighting Chaos.

I prefer the Empire Campaigns' design in Warhammer 2 more than in Warhammer 3. In Warhammer 2 the minor inconveniences you have to keep in check all the time are smaller, annoying but manageable, while Chaos is the real deal that could really destroy you. In Warhammer 3 Kislev is its own faction so Kislev deals with Chaos. To balance this, the Empire's inconveniences have amplified. It's no longer about dealing with minor inconvenience and waiting for the Chaos to come. It's about deal with inconvenience after inconvenience after inconvenience. The inconvenience is the end game now. And there are many more in Warhammer 3, beside the Orcs, Norscans, Beastmen, Vampires and Drycha that both games have, Warhammer 3 also has: more Orcs (in the north), same amount of vampires, more Elves (in the north), Nurgle Champion in Hochland, Be'lakor in Albion and the Changeling in the Empire.

But no Chaos Invasion. It's a different concept, but I prefer the Warhammer 2 version. Although I can see how the Warhammer 2 concept was impossible in Warhammer 3 because now Kislev is the "dealing with Chaos" faction.



But Balthazar Gelt is also good. This time you are not the Emperor, but the guy supporting the Emperor, the guy the Emperor goes and says "hey man, I'm stuck here, could you do me a solid and fix that?", not to mention early game you fight vampires, and vampires vs empire is always so fun for some reason. Also great concept for a co-op.


10) Vlad von Carstein -> Mortal Empires
Wolfrik the Wonderer -> Mortal Empires
Archaon the Everchosen -> Mortal Empires

Sure, you can always destroy the Empire with an orc like Skarsnik or Azhag the Slaughterer, but I found the most fun is to either destroy the Empire as a Vampire while the Chaos also attacks from the north, or as the Viking raiders who went a raid too much.


Orcs and Norsca have a special thing called "tribal confederation", if you manage to find the leader of a faction of the same race as you, and defeat them in battle, you can confederate his whole faction including himself, right there right then. Using this with Wolfrik I managed to confederate all of Norsca in 17 turns. And then went for the Empire.


Remember what I said in Mortal Empires campaign that there's a Chaos Invasion event? You can be that Chaos Invasion. Destroying everything you find. Don't bother with diplomacy, nobody likes you, except for maybe, very maybe, some Norscan tribes. Archaon the Everchosen is the big boss of Chaos and most powerful of the bunch, you can recruit the other 2 as well if you make some missions.

My Recommendation for Campaigns 3

BONUS) Fun co-op & versus campaign scenarios:

Coop:

1. El Classico - Empire & Bretonnia.
2. The Two Empires - Empire & Dwarves
3. Evil Guys - Vampire Counts and Greenskins
4. Evil Guys North - Norsca & Warriors of Chaos
5. Imperial Loyalists - Empire (Karl) & Empire (Balthasar)
6. Vampire Bros - Vampire Counts (Vlad) & Vampire Counts (Manfred)
7. A Tale of Two Empires - High Elves & Empire

8. World Police - High Elves (Tyrion) & High Elves (Teclis)
9. Terror of the Seas - Vampire Coast (Luthor) & Vampire Coast (Noctilus)
10. Colonizers - Empire (Markus Wolfhart) & Bretonnia (Lyonesse)
11. Over the World - Dark Eldar & Skaven
12. Rise of the Undead - Tomb Lords & Vampire Coast
13. Uneasy Alliance - High Elves & Lizardmen
14. Elven Supremacy - Wood Elves & High Elves

Head to Head:

1. The Original Campaign - Empire vs. Chaos/Norsca
2. Old Grudge - Dwarves vs. Greenskins
3. Stalemate - Bretonnia vs. Wood Elves
4. The True Von Carstein - Vampire Counts (Vlad) & Vampire Counts (Manfred)
5. Best Horde - Beastmen vs. Chaos
6. A Tale of Horror - Empire vs Vampire Counts

7. The Second Campaign - Dark Elves vs. High Elves
8. Of Men and Monsters - Lizardmen vs. Empire
9. The Short and the Tall - Dark Elves vs. Dwarves
10. Colonists' War - Empire (Markus Wolfhart) & Bretonnia (Lyonesse)
11. The Short Campaign - Skaven vs. Dwarves
12. The Beast and the Dead - Lizardmen vs Tomb Lords

The DLC Policy

No doubt you have noticed this game has a lot of DLCs, it's not that bad, every DLC unlocks either: 2 new playable lords and about 4 new units for those 2 races or 1 playable race with 4 lords. You still have most of the game without them.

But even if you don't have the DLC, they are still in the game, so you can fight them, you just can't play as them or confederate them. One lord pack is 10$ and one race pack is 18$. You can totally enjoy the game without them, given that you still have 90% of the game without them, the only significant DLC I would say is buying Warhammer 1 which unlocks the Mortal Empires campaign and all the races from the old game in this new game.

Again, LegendofTotalWar has a tier list if you are interested in Warhammer 2 DLC:

But as he says, read up about them and make your own mind what lords you want to play as based on your personal taste.

For me it was:
- Vampire Coast race pack because I just love the thematics of the Vampire Coast.
- The Hunter and the Beast lord pack because I like both Nakai the Wanderer's horde and beating everything in your path mechanic and Markus Wulfhart's colonization efforts basically.
- The Prophet and the Warlock lord pack soley for Ikit Claw which is by far one of the most amazing lords with nukes, about Tehenhauin I don't care about him or like him at all but was worth for Ikit Claw.
- The Silence & The Fury lord pack only for Oxyotl's visions, I'm not so much into Taurox or Beastmen in general but it's nice you can play another race in the story campaign.
- The Twisted and the Twilight lord pack because basically I like Throt the Unclean's experiments on other Skaven and Sisters of Twilight's playstyle with defending the forest.

But that's just my personal opinion. For example, the most popular race pack is actually Tomb Kings not Vampire Coast, I played Tomb Kings but I don't like them that much, not great not terrible, obviously a lot of people disagree with me since it's the most sold DLC, so read about them and make up your own mind based on your own tastes. And really, try a lot of the base game's campaigns before you get into DLCs, there are a lot out there, especially if you also own Warhammer 1.

VIII. ENDING

Meme Culture

Let's get you initiated into the meme culture:
- Summon the Elector Counts.
- Settra does not serve!
- Balthasar Gelt is the absolute chad.
- Fay Enchantress is basically Warhammer 2's Pokimane simpy-boy.
- Ikit Claw got nukes and Skaven in general don't care about their own people.
- High Elves are rich AF and America's world police.
- Dark Elves are the real America if you ask some, that's why they are in America.
- Lizardmen are the true heroes of Warhammer but that's just Lizardmen propaganda.
- Everything goes to the book of Grudges of the Dwarves.
- Never call Dwarves short. Or anything short for that matter.
- Skavens don't exist.
- Nobody plays Helman Ghorst of Vampire Counts, if you play Helman uninstall the game.
- Vlad is in fact the true von Carstein and Mannfred just a cheap copy that everybody hates.
- Lizardmen need more updates even if Lizardmen had more updates than all the races.
and more.

Lore Culture

You'll probably learn about soon enough about Karl Franz, Emperor Karl Franz I Holswig-Schliestein, Protector of the Empire, Defier of the Dark, Sigmar's Heir, by Sigmar you will learn about him! And how the Empire is a mess just like the Holy Roman Empire that is based on, with elector counts having a lot of power and one of them (although the others don't invite him to vote and hate him for some reason) is a vampire (Vlad).

You'll also learn about Louen Leoncoeur whose name couldn't have been more French if he was called Pierre. The heir of Gill, it's written "Gilles" but being French you just say "Gill" with a high emphasis on G. Who does everything for the lady, who is probably an Elf but the Bretonnians don't know that. Some suspect Fay Enchantress is the lady, although she claims she isn't.

You will learn why Vlad is the true von Carstein and not Manfred the jerk.

And the ones who have a campaign in Eye of the Vortex will already show you their lore through cinematics in game like the brothers Tyrion and Teclis. The one who stays home and the one who goes out into the wild to find a way to fix the Vortex.

As well as for the others with lots of cinematics like Dark Elves, Skaven, Tomb Kings, Vampire Coast and the 1 lords of the Empire, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Beastmen, Greenskins and Bretonnia who have an entrance in the Eye of the Vortex campaign.

But today I want to show you the ones at the bottom of the list, and by that I mean literally the bottom of the list like Imirk who is the last on the list for the High Elves. The ones that it becomes less likely to play because they are not the "main guys". To see how much lore even a side character has in Warhammer.

And yes I'm 100% aware I just insulted everyone you'll find on this list below.

Thank you for reading, I hope this guide was of great help to you.

This guide has been sponsored by the anti-Lizardmen clan.

I hope this short guide helped you and the Dwarves.

[concord03]

This is awesome! So much work! And funny too! Thank you.
Helps me in choosing my third capmaign.

[WillDance]

This guide is one of the best I read on STEAM. Witty and funny! You make Warhammer more interesting even after I have played for hundreds of hours!

[UnnamedPlayerA]

Awesome guide. The best Warhammer 2 guide I could find on the Internet

[Bok Choy]

Thank you sir for the work you put into this. Very helpful

[BEEN]

I ❤️ Lizardmen