Arbaal - Khorne overview, guide for Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires

Hello everyone. This is what I check out for when I wish to play a campaign, a very brief overview of what I believe will happen during the campaign, as well as my initial thoughts on matters such as diplomacy, expansion paths, army compositions, important skills for lords, etc.

In this specific one, I pick the Legendary Lord Arbaal the Undefeated, of Khorne

Please do leave feedback and comment below, always keen to discuss the game with you guys.

Arbaal - Khorne overview, guide for Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires

Hello everyone. In this guide I will cover:
- Victory conditions, faction and climate;
- Starting location;
- Diplomacy and outposts;
- Mechanics of the race and faction;
- Province edicts and army stances;
- Buildings and research;
- Lords and skills;
- Army compositions;
And give you my final notes on the specific faction. Hope you enjoy it.

If you prefer to watch the video, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbMssi4C-18

If you prefer to read, here we go:

VICTORY CONDITIONS:

Short victory:

- Complete 8 Challenges of Khorne
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements.

The reward is the Chainsword, a unique Legendary item that is super focused in brutal damage, which will help your character gain even more blood and skulls. Great for Arbaal to have that extra power to ensure he is not defeated in battle.

This is a rather short campaign, just depending a bit on the challenges that you go for, but usually it can be completed fairly fast.

Long victory:

- Achieve the short victory;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 60 different settlements;
- Complete 15 challenges of Khorne;
- Perform 8 rituals in the Skull Throne;
- Destroy the faction of the Ecstatic Legions (Azazel);

The reward is lord recruit rank +10, which is always helpful, particularly good for Khorne to ensure you can get an easier Exalted Bloodthirster lord, should you wish to.

A lengthy victory requirement depending on certain situations, such as the availability of the skulls, of course, but overall the short to long victory ratio is quite balanced.

Arbaal is the Undefeated, and benefits from:

- Access to the Challenges of Khorne, allowing Arbaal to seek out battles to increase Khorne's favor;
- Upkeep -10% for non-daemonic units;
- Construction cost -50% for mortal military and defense buildings;
- Construction time -50% for mortal military and defense buildings;

The opposite of Skulltaker, Arbaal is clearly a faction focused on the mortal side of the Khorne's army roster, and you should enjoy the benefits of it. Of course, nothing wrong with having a few heralds and daemons, but the likely focus is going to be your Chosen, or your Chaos warriors.

Climate is great, almost without any uninhabitable locations, which means this is also a very good campaign to attempt global domination on. Clearly one that is intended on bring Khorne's glory to the whole map.

STARTING LOCATION:


Starting location is very good, very defensible overall. You do have powerful legendary lords nearby, so be wary of getting into multiple wars too soon.

You have a slight access to the sea for any godies found there, and you have the nearby sea lane to make use for further expansion to the middle of the Ogres/Greenskins/Chaos Dwarf Lands, to try to benefit from it.

DIPLOMACY:

In terms of diplomacy, you are quite in a different position than other factions.
While the main enemies should be from the order tide, you are also requested to fight chaos in your challenges, which does imply that you may have little support from your chaos "Friends".


Therefore, allies will likely be other evil factions such as the Greenskins or Skaven, and you can try to gain some of their missile units to complement your own forces with any outposts.

MECHANICS OF THE FACTION:

Khorne has a lot of mechanics, so let's get to them:


Skulls is your currency, gained by killing enemies or razing settlements. You can then use the Skulls to occupy settlements, for specific technologies, to summon Blood Hosts or give offerings to the Skull Throne.


One specific Khorne mechanic happens when you raze a settlement, you have a chance for it to be colonized automatically later by your faction. All that you need is to own at least one settlement in the province, and this chance can be increased by certain buildings or techs.


The Skull throne is a set of bonuses you can get by spending Skulls. Some of the more interesting effects include replenishment of movement and replenishment of the units for your Faction Leader, which is very helpful to quickly roll over your enemies. You have 4 tiers, each with stronger benefits, which are also unlocked by spending skulls.


Bloodletting is a mechanic tied to your armies, and basically the more victories in a row you have, the better. Upkeep for that army can get up to -40%, replenishment up to 10%, Khorne corruption +6 and Global recruitment -2.


Cults is another mechanic, which is spread by your Cultist hero, and the cult provides you with building options that can alter how you approach the enemy settlement and province. This includes the option to teleport your faction leader there, so it is great to send a Cultist Hero far away to quickly port your faction leader there and perhaps start a second front.


Khorne's favor is a specific currency for Arbaal, gained from Winning battles, missions and challenges. You can then use the favor for the Challenges of Khorne, a set of specific missions (challenges) to take out armies that are either worthy, perfect, or ultimate challenges; you can also have bonuses called Boons of Khorne, which include upkeep reduction, campaign movement range, and blood hosts summoned after winning battles.

PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:

Edicts:

Control +4, Chance of a Plague -40%, Khorne corruption +3, adjacent corruption +1;
Recruitment cost -15%, recruitment rank +1, local recruitment capacity +1;
Growth +20, construction cost -10%, winds of magic power reserve +5 per turn;
Upkeep -10%, income from post-battle 20%, income from all buildings +10% (all effects in the province);

These are a nice set of edicts, very thematic too. You should remember when you are going to recruit or to build, and chance accordingly.

Army Stances:

Combat Trials, giving 1 skull per turn for each unit in the army, winds of magic +15, unit XP +200 per turn, but it does give attrition to your army.
Encamp, giving replenishment and immunity to attrition, but reducing winds of magic -5; note it requires no movement!
Raiding, costs 50 points of movement, enables replenishment in foreign territory (!), immunity to attrition;
Ambush, costs 25 movement points;
Forced march;

Overall a fairly typical set, remember that the combat trials is very good to quickly earn some skulls if you are not in any danger, and encamp costs no movement points.

Arbaal - Khorne overview, guide for Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires part 2

BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH:


You need 7 military buildings for maximum military, but, more importantly, you need 2 province capitals for it.
This is because you have two types of settlements; daemonic settlements, and mortal settlements;
As the name suggests, each allows buildings that recruit either the Daemons or Mortal units. Therefore, depending on what units you wish, you should swap the mortal-daemonic settlement building.
Tier 3 units are already quite insane to be honest. Exalted Bloodletters, Chosen of Khorne, Chaos Knights of Khorne, and others, and you have yourself an army in very little time. Of course, Tier 4 and 5 have the best units available to your faction, be it daemonic or mortal based, but you do not lack quality in the lower tiers by any means.
Each military building also provides a bit of income, thus furthering the importance of keeping that military investment well fueled. Remember that you can synergize with your faction bonuses and keep strict to mortal buildings that are cheaper for a better return of investment here.
In terms of Infrastructure:

1 - Growth and casualty replenishment rate building;
2 - Attrition to enemies, control, and upkeep reduction for your armies;
3 - Income from post-battle loot, income from raiding and sacking and looting settlements for ALL armies (!);
4 - Skulls per turn, Khorne corruption building;

A very nice set of buildings, which means you can very easily optimize for a grand strategy of razing or looting or just quickly recruiting masses of very low upkeep armies.


Research has now been changed, with a split between military and campaign focus.
Military is well divided into sections for infantry, cavalry, chariots, monsters.

The most interesting choice for me is the research for the campaign. Subdivided into 6 parts, each dealing with a theme, be it income from battle/loot/razing; bonuses from skulls; Hero and Lord benefits; Generalized province benefits; and the last two focus blood hosts in particular.

Overall, this makes it very good for whatever type of strategy you are aiming to implement, be it a more slow and steady style, or fast and expansionist.

LORDS, SKILLS:

Blue line has casualty replenishment and reduced attrition on the same skill. A priority for me, since it allows you to expand faster and quickly restore your forces to full power.
You also have reduced upkeep and even further bonuses for the Daemons reforged mechanic. And should you prefer a razing/sacking economy, of course you can take those bonuses too.
Finally, last blue line skill of renowned and feared gives a welcoming movement ranged and reduced upkeep which is great for Khorne.

Redline is quite nice, as it is mostly split between mortal and daemonic units, or it splits units by role. This allows you to have armies with many different units who benefit from the same skill, increasing their synergy with just a few skill points used.

Remember that chaos lords have a different set of Redline skills, and you should take some time to check which unit combinations are better under which lords.

The Cultists of Khorne are the heroes that provide further replenishment when embedded in an army, and they also have summons, which may be in your interest. Keep moving, replenishing, fighting, and winning is always a good strategy with Khorne, so they allow it even further.

ARMY COMPOSITIONS (SEE BELOW):

First, remember to check both redline skills for the Heralds and for the Chaos lords, to better choose which units to benefit under which type of lord.


For the Heralds, a typical division between monsters, daemons, and mortal units.


For the chaos lords, they split more into roles, allowing a bit more variety.
Note that Heralds, for the most part, give more melee defense and physical resistance, while chaos lords give more armor and spell resistance.


Arbaal is extremely powerful leading mortal based armies, so of course that is the them and idea here. Chosen with Wrathmongers and some mobility with Cavalry or Monsters makes for a powerful combination on any situation.


Heralds can go with a few combinations with Daemons too. A classical Exalted Bloodletters with monsters combination is terrific for a fast "in-your-face" attack, or you can have some form of ranged, specially useful as a support army or if the enemy brings out some mild flyers (or a flying lord).


Chaos Lords improve mortal units, so I offer a few ideas, one still relying on some Minotaurs, and the other with just heavy brute force cavalry. Given your faction focus, likely you will be recruiting plenty of these.


Bloodspeakers enhance the new units of Skullreapers and Wrathmongers, and give some speed and Armor Piercing which is excellent for fast units. Therefore, it make sense either to have some beasts or a quick tier 3 focused army as the second example given, very fast and brute force based. As Khorne wanted.


If you upgrade to Exalted Bloodthirsters, Khorne Daemon units obtain some nice barrier hit poitns if you use that skill, so you can have some nice compositions between mortal units and daemonic units for sure.

Arbaal - Khorne overview, guide for Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires part 3

ARMY PROGRESSION IDEA (SEE IMAGE):

For an army progression, I like to try to synergize 3 aspects: buildings, role, and redline skills. As you can see from the image, you can evolve the units from chaos warriors to chosen, and to go for wrathmongers, all in one building (note: chaos warriors are in the province capital), and they benefit from the same redline skill. This is just such a clear upgrade and path to take.


Same idea can apply to Chaos Knights into the Skullcrushers as they are in the same building and same redline skill.

Of course, with RoR, outpost units, Legendary Heroes... it can all change. This is just to explain a bit my thought process and help you see what is the initial army and sort of natural progression of it.

FINAL CONCLUSION:

Arbaal is a bit the opposite of Skulltaker, with a very mortal unit focused campaign. Of course you can still use daemonic units, but the theme is rather into the mortals this time, so embrace it!

The faction suffers a bit from having no magic, so if you are a magic enthusiast, you may want to stick to a Short victory, same with all Khorne factions, really. Still, lots of fun to be had of just having some of the best melee units in the game at your disposal even further improved!

Growth can be a pain, as well as income. It is encouraged to use either upkeep reductions or a sack/raze/loot economy, specially if you are in the red all the time.

It may seem one dimensional, but it is a fun dimension to be at. Loot, destroy, maim, wreck, kill, raze... that is your goal. Embrace it.

Your army roster consists of:

1 - Great and powerful infantry;
2 - Average missile choices;
3 - Great monsters and single entities;
4 - Good cavalry and chariots;
5- Lacks some missile options;
6 - Lacks any form of magic;

Replenishment is very good, probably one of the best factions around for it. Make sure you check for the proper mechanics to increase it, and always be looking for some important synergies between Edicts, buildings, and Bloodletting for heavy upkeep reduction.

I believe it is now time for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD; SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!! with Arbaal, of Khorne!