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This chapter contains useful advice on playing the Lorthern under Tyrion's leadership.
Initial situation
Tyrion starts the game with one city - Lothern. What's particular about it is that Lothern has 9 building slots and 2 special slots. The Dark Elves will be the first enemy - The Cult of Excess. They will be dwelling in the remaining two cities of your province, and in Angerrial in the neighboring province. The army closest to you will be consisting of 10 formations, stationing in the Glittering Tower. The Caledor - lying on the west, is going to be another target. The remaining factions are High Elves, and they will be neutral towards you.
First turns
In the initial battles, the bolt throwers and the good range of your archers will give you an edge over the Dark Elves.
You should begin the game by befriending the other factions of the High Elves, and getting rid of the Cult of Excess. First, only the Yvresse will settle for a non-aggression pact and a trading agreement, but the remaining ones should not be very problematic if you use the Influence.
Head for the Tower of Lysean, and at the same time recruit new units and start developing Lothern. The Dark Elve's settlement should yield without much resistance, and you will be able to demolish the Militia camp in Lothern - the same building is in your newly acquired town, and there's no use having two of these.
Then attack the Glittering Tower, while at the same time expanding your army (you should have at least 4-5 units of archers, the rest should be Spearmen). In Lothern, you should construct the following buildings: Plaza (to improve the public order), Elven Gardens (this will increase the income from Plaza as well as allow you to recruit one more hero) and Elven Craftsman (additional income).
After conquering the next settlement, strengthen your army (so it's full or almost full) and set out to conquer Angerrial. Develop the settlements you already own. After achieving a population surplus, prioritize the main building in the Glistering Tower and build a Homestead there. After getting another surplus point, invest in the Tower of Lysean and build Salt Flats there (which will yield a resource for trade). Don't forget to develop the currently available buildings.
The Dark Elve's army will probably want to face you outside the settlement, in the fields. Considering the power of your bolt throwers and archers, you will have an edge over them, and the battle shouldn't be particularly difficult. However, if they decide to take the battle in the city, the army you have might be too weak to crush the walls.
Unfortunately, when you're fighting for Angerrial, another faction of High Elves - most probably the Sapher - will probably capture another settlement in this province: Shrine of Asuryan. Which will make the development of this province a bit more difficult - you also won't be able to issue edicts. You could declare war on them, but that doesn't make much sense. Instead, try to increase your relations with the Intrigues tab (accessible by pressing 0) and try to quickly form a confederacy. NOTE that if you're playing on a difficulty lower than very hard, you might just be able to capture the whole province - if you act with haste.
Next, try to develop the settlements for a couple turns. Then you can try to replenish the losses in your army. You should replace some spearmen with the Sea Guard from Lothern - they are hybrid units that do great in battle.
Seizing the Kowadla Vaula quickly is essential in the Lothern campaign.
When your army is ready, head out to fight the Caledor. Capturing their capital -Vaul's Anvil is of utmost importance, because it's a place that provides the ritual resource. Try not to attack when the garrison in the settlement is full - you might not be able to cope with such force, especially if there's a dragon inside. Instead, attack when the army is outside, or try to lure it out. When you manage to capture the settlement, build the Ancient Waystone (if it's not already built for any reason) - this will provide the points needed for a Ritual.
Then focus on getting rid of the Caledor quickly. There's no telling what sort of power and territory will that country have - sometimes they conquer the whole west coast of Ulthuan, other times they just have one city.
Remaining turns
During the following turns, your task will be to unite the whole Ulthuan. Stary by conquering the factions on the west - the Tiranoc and the Nagarythe; they will probably not be friendly towards you, so forging an alliance might not be easy.
Easiest Faction Total War Warhammer 2 Mortal Empires
Then set out to conquer the Scourge of Khaine in the north. One of their settlements - Temple of Khaine is another city that will yield ritual resource, so make sure you're quick when capturing it.
In the meantime, increase your relations with the remaining High Elves and try to create confederations. Also try to make sure the relations between the 3rd party factions are good as well - otherwise, your alliance might be broken by internal conflicts.
If you manage to unite the Ulthuan, you can try to mount a sea expedition, get across the sea and attack the heart of the Dark Elves' empire, but such a journey will not be easy, especially since you will have to defend your own world during the Rituals. On the other hand, this will prevent the Dark Elves from attacking you, which might be advantageous.
Maintain peace with the Bretonnia knights and the Dwarves on the northern realms of the Southern Lands - trading with them will be hugely profitable. Additionally, you should also try to incorporate the factions of the High Elves that are separated by sea - this will give you vantage points in the south.
For the sake of overseas affairs, you should develop the Maritime Empire technology - this will reveal the world around all bodies of water, and hence many new factions (including the faction of Teclis - the other Legendary Lord of the High Elves). In order to be able to develop this technology, you will have to build Shrine of Asuryan (an advanced military building).
According to an ancient Sussex proverb, there are as many factions in the 20-year-old Total War series as there are sand grains on a beach, as there are angels dancing upon the head of a pin, as there are grenadiers in the armies of his Imperial Majesty Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Co-Prince of Andorra. This is providing, of course, the answer in each case is “between 100 and 200, depending on whether you include the DLC and think Sicily is a real country.”
From stinky hill tribes through trim Teutonic phalanxes to bawling rivers of undead, Total Warring has certainly come in all shapes and sizes. At a recent hands-on event for Total War: Three Kingdoms, a heinous idea occurred to me: why not confuse and upset all the developers in attendance (plus a couple more over email) by asking them to pick a favourite faction? The results, which involved surprisingly few headbutts, are below.
Simon Mann – senior designer on Three Kingdoms, designer on Attila and Warhammer
If I had to pick any one, because as you say there are like a couple of hundred, I really liked playing as the Julii in Rome 1. Because I always like when there’s a technological divide between factions, like swords versus muskets, I love that whole concept – and it’s really great to be the Romans, and have these high-ranking Hastati and Triarii as your bulk troops along with your family tree and your generals, fighting Germanic and Gallic barbarians. You’re fighting through and establishing yourself before everything breaks back down again, and you have to deal with the other Romans. I love that thing where the tech breaks up in that fashion. That’s quite a formative Total War experience, for me.
Janos Gaspar – game director on Total War: Three Kingdoms, lead designer for Attila
I like the French in Napoleon’s Peninsular campaign. They have an absolutely insane starting position – you are the biggest, you’re the strongest, but you always feel that you’re behind the curve, and there’s a lot of running around after rebels, and the British are just sending in troops… It’s a real challenge and super-interesting. I also like, for similar reasons, the Western Roman Empire in Attila. You are in a losing situation to start with, and have to decide what to sacrifice first – contract to be able to expand. That was something we hadn’t done much before. And then the Dwarves in Warhammer as well – it’s just really nice, that feeling where they’re smaller units and I almost feel like I know every single Dwarf by name.
Peter Stewart – writer on Attila, Warhammer, Warhammer II and Three Kingdoms, QA tester for Rome II
You’ve put me on the spot, but back in the very beginning, on Shogun 1, I would always play as Uesugi. I was delighted when Shogun 2 was announced and they added him as one of the lords. So I started playing as him – and to this day, and I always play on the top difficulty, I have never finished a Shogun 2 campaign as Uesugi. As a player, I love him, I think he’s the coolest character, but as a designer, I think he’s probably too hard! But maybe I’m just not that good at Shogun 2. I’ve completed dozens of campaigns with other factions, just never ever as Uesugi. From a design point of view, I think I really like the Sassanids in Attila. I think it’s a good entry point for people in what is quite a difficult game – the Sassanids ease you into that world. You can sort of watch the craziness happen while you’re over in the east, building up on top of the old Parthian Empire, and then spreading out and seeing how you do. And then after that, you feel like you could maybe take on the Eastern Roman Empire, and maybe if you’re feeling super-dangerous, the West.
Leif Walter – senior designer for Total War: Three Kingdoms
It’s not a single faction, but I really like the horde factions in Attila, where you can pack your things and seek your fortune somewhere else. It feels like there’s a lot of narrative around you and your tribe – you abandon your settlement and struggle for survival a bit, and then you find your new lands. I find that very interesting as a designer. And as a player, my fondest memories are of the Taira in Total War: Shogun 2’s Rise of the Samurai campaign, because it’s super-hard but tightly balanced. It was a great experience.
Richard Aldridge – senior then lead designer for Warhammer, Warhammer II and its DLC
My favourite faction both from a player and developer’s point of view has to be the Tomb Kings. They certainly presented a great challenge to design and create. One challenge was how to make the characters and units feel alive when they are made of stone and sand. On paper this sounded easy, but in practice it took many hours to get right. The idle animations proved particularly difficult for the construct units, as initially they looked broken – some people internally thought the animations were placeholder and missing. So we looked at other ways to bring movement to the constructs while static, adding cloth which could blow in the wind or a pulsing VFX.
Additionally, we gave ourselves quite the challenge in removing one of the core mechanical pillars of a Total War game, unit upkeep and recruitment cost. It’s one of our staples in how we balance our factions and games, particularly in the later stages of a campaign. Taking this factor out of the equation certainly made us think a lot more about the core gameplay loop that the user would experience. Bringing back the use of unit caps and army caps proved to be a defining choice – it really shaped the way the Tomb Kings played and made them so different from anything we’ve done in a Total War game, while not letting them steamroll everyone else.
Pawel Wojs – art director for Total War: Three Kingdoms, artist on Attila, Shogun 2, Rome 2
I think my favourite faction… Oh god, it’s so difficult! Well, the one that straightaway comes to mind is Ostragoths in Attila. They’re essentially a migratory faction but you could acquire Roman settlements and train up Roman units, and yeah, I loved them. A close second for me is the Polish empire in Empire, both because I’m Polish and because I was in the game as well. I was one of the character rigs. I was very happy about that!
All Factions In Total War Warhammer 2
Andy Hall – ex-Games Workshop scribe and narrative designer for the Total War: Warhammer trilogy
I’m a well-known Skaven player – when I was the writer on White Dwarf I was often featured in those hallowed pages losing with my beloved rats in battle reports. The arrival of the Skavens in Total War allowed me to address that, well, in the privacy of my own campaign. Now I can manically laugh as my under-empire grows and I cover the world in an unrelenting vermintide – yes-yes, all shall bow-submit to Warlord Hallscurry. I also love playing with the Empire because it’s always annoyed me in the fiction that the city of Marienburg had the gall to secede from the nation 70 years before the campaign starts. So, on principle, I always send Karl Franz north-west to take Marienburg first, even if it means losing a good portion of the south to the vampires. And from a developer’s perspective it has to be the Vampire Coast. It was a real joy to work with Games Workshop on building out this area of Warhammer Fantasy Battles into a full faction. I found myself in the strange and delightful position of writing shanties for zombie pirates and forging a new legend in Cylostra Direfin.
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Total War Warhammer Playable Races
Attila Mohacsi (no relation) – lead designer on Three Kingdoms, senior designer for Attila and Warhammer
Personally I would say Huns. They’re a unique faction – you can’t settle, the whole concept is that you have to be on the road, constantly expanding. You’re like a shark, if you stop moving forward you just die. And on the battles side, I think their horse archers come together really well. If you can surround your enemy with horse archers, and you’re poking at them from different sides… I have this lovely story, actually! Somebody at work, one of our producers I think, was playing multiplayer with me at lunchtime, and he was one of the infantry factions, the Visigoths. And five minutes into the battle, when I disposed of his cavalry, he was like ‘I’m beaten, I can’t do anything, I surrender’. Because if you play them really well, you can harass the other player to the point that it’s impossible to counter. You really have to micro it. And if it’s not a historical faction, my favourite faction is Chaos. It’s a similar concept to the Huns, you have to be very aggressive, you can’t stop. You just have to take over the world.
Rogue Armies | ||||
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Rogue Armies [Placeholder] | ||||
Black Creek Raiders | Dwellers of Zardok | Eyes of the Jungle | Pilgrims of Myrmidia | The Sunken Land Corsairs |
Bleak Coast Buccaneers | The Boyz of the Forbidden Coast | Freebooters of Port Royale | Grey Point Scuttlers | The Terrors of the Dark Straits |
The Churning Gulf Raiders | The Tyrants of the Black Ocean | Dragon Spine Privateers | Middle Sea Brigands | Shark Strait Seadogs |
Abominations | Beastcatchas | Bernhoff's Brigands | Black Spider Tribe | Boneclubbers Tribe |
Celestial Storm | College of Pyrotechnics | Vashnaar's Conquest | Mengil's Manflayers | Doomseekers |
Gerhardt's Mercenaries | Tor Elithis Refugees | Hung Warband | Jerrod's Errantry Army | Mangy Houndz |
Morrslieb's Howlers | Pirates of the Far Sea | Pirates of the Southern Ocean | Pirates of Trantio | Scions of Tesseninck |
The Scourge of Aquitaine | Stuff-Snatchers | Teef Snatchaz | The Wandering Dead | Troll-Skullz |
Vaul's Expedition | Heirs of Mourkain | Hunters of Kurnous | Worldroot Rangers | Wrath of Nature |
Skaven | ||||
Skaven [Placeholder] | ||||
Clan Rictus | Clan Fester | Clan Mange | Clan Eshin | Clan Gnaw |
Clan Mordkin | Clan Moulder | Clan Septik | Clan Skryre | Clan Spittel |
Grey Seer Clan | Skaven | Skaven Intervention | Unknown Skaven Clan | Unknown Skaven Clan |
Unknown Skaven Clan | Unknown Skaven Clan | |||
Skaven Rebel | ||||
Skaven Rebels | ||||
Skaven Civil War | ||||
Clan Rictus Separatists | Clan Mors Separatists | Clan Pestilens Separatists | Clan Skryre Separatists | |
Tomb Kings | ||||
Tomb Kings [Placeholder] | ||||
Dune Kingdoms | Exiles of Nehek | Followers of Nagash | Khemri | Court of Lybaras |
Numas | Rakaph Dynasty | The Sentinels | ||
Tomb Kings Rebel | ||||
Tomb Kings Rebels | ||||
Dark Elves | ||||
Dark Elves [Placeholder] | ||||
Blood Voyage | Bleak Holds | Blood Hall Coven | Clar Karond | Cult of Excess |
Cult of Pleasure | Dark Elves | Dark Elf Intervention | Deadwood Sentinels | Drackla Coven |
Ghrond | Hag Graef | Karond Kar | Scourge of Khaine | Ss'ildra Tor |
The Forgebound | ||||
Dark Elves Rebel | ||||
Dark Elf Rebels | ||||
Vampire Coast | ||||
Vampire Coast | ||||
The Dreadfleet | Pirates of Sartosa | The Drowned | Vampire Coast | |
Vampire Coast Rebel | ||||
Vampire Coast Rebels | ||||
Morathi | ||||
Morathi [Placeholder] | ||||
The Blessed Dread | Har Ganeth | |||
Vampire Counts | ||||
Vampire Counts [Placeholder] | ||||
The Barrow Legion | ||||
Greenskins | ||||
Greenskins [Placeholder] | ||||
Leaf-Cutterz Tribe | Leaf-Cutterz Tribe Waaagh! | Arachnos | Arachnos Waaagh! | Blue Vipers |
Blue Vipers Waaagh! | ||||
Lizardmen | ||||
Lizardmen [Placeholder] | ||||
Cult of Sotek | Last Defenders | Lizardmen | Lizardmen Intervention | Sentinels of Xeti |
Southern Sentinels | Teotiqua | Tlaqua | Tlaxtlan | Xlanhuapec |
Zlatlan | ||||
Lizardmen Rebel | ||||
Lizardmen Rebels | ||||
Bretonnia | ||||
Bretonnia [Placeholder] | ||||
Knights of Origo | Knights of the Flame | Thegan's Errantry | ||
Beastmen | ||||
Beastmen [Placeholder] | ||||
Blooded-Axe Tribe | Blooded-Axe Tribe Brayherd | Manblight Tribe | Manblight Tribe Brayherd | Ripper-Horn Tribe |
Ripper-Horn Tribe Brayherd | Shadowgor Warherd | Shadowgor Brayherd | Skrinderkin Warherd | Skrinderkin Brayherd |
Stone-Horn Tribe | Stone-Horn Tribe Brayherd | |||
Warriors of Chaos | ||||
Warriors of Chaos [Placeholder] | ||||
Servants to Chaos | Puppets of Chaos | Vessels of Chaos | Followers of Chaos | |
Malekith | ||||
Malekith [Placeholder] | ||||
Naggarond | ||||
Dwarfs | ||||
Dwarfs [Placeholder] | ||||
Greybeard's Prospectors | Karak Zorn | Spine of Sotek Dwarfs | ||
The Empire | ||||
The Empire [Placeholder] | ||||
New World Colonies | Sudenburg | |||
High Elves | ||||
High Elves [Placeholder] | ||||
Avelorn | Caledor | Chrace | Citadel of Dusk | Cothique |
Ellyrion | Fortress of Dawn | High Elves | High Elf Intervention | Nagarythe |
Saphery | Tiranoc | Tor Elasor | Yvresse | |
High Elves Rebel | ||||
High Elf Rebels | ||||
Tyrion | ||||
Tyrion [Placeholder] | ||||
Lothern | ||||
Teclis | ||||
Teclis [Placeholder] | ||||
Order of Loremasters | ||||
Lord Mazdamundi | ||||
Lord Mazdamundi [Placeholder] | ||||
Hexoatl | ||||
Kroq-Gar | ||||
Kroq-Gar [Placeholder] | ||||
Itza | ||||
Norsca | ||||
Norsca [Placeholder] | ||||
Aghol | Warband of the Hound | Warband of the Eagle | Warband of the Serpent | Warband of the Crow |
Mung | Skeggi | |||
Queek Headtaker | ||||
Queek Headtaker [Placeholder] | ||||
Clan Mors | ||||
Lord Skrolk | ||||
Lord Skrolk [Placeholder] | ||||
Clan Pestilens | ||||
Wood Elves | ||||
Wood Elves [Placeholder] | ||||
Bowmen of Oreon | ||||
Other | ||||
Other | ||||
Tomb Kings | Tomb Kings | Tomb Kings | Tomb Kings | Tomb Kings |
Exiles of Nehek | Followers of Nagash | Khemri | Court of Lybaras | Bretonnian Merchants |
Rogue Pirates | Vampire Coast | Vampire Coast | Vampire Coast | Vampire Coast |
Vampire Coast Mutineers | Dark Elf Slavers | Exotic Goods Hauler | The Empire | Norscan Raiders |
Skjold Raiders | Dark Elves | Dark Elves | Dark Elves | Dark Elves |
Pirates of Sartosa | High Elves | High Elves | High Elves | High Elves |
Lizardmen | Lizardmen | Lizardmen | Lizardmen | Doomseekers |
Gerhardt's Mercenaries | Skaven | Skaven | Skaven | Skaven |
Necrarch Brotherhood | Strygos Empire | The Silver Host | Vampire Coast | |
Other Civil War | ||||
The Dreadfleet Separatists | Pirates of Sartosa Separatists | The Drowned Separatists | Vampire Coast Separatists | The Blessed Dread Separatists |
Cult of Pleasure Separatists | Har Ganeth Separatists | Naggarond Separatists |
Minor Factions Blog
In the early stages of planning Total War: Warhammer it became pretty clear to us that to best reflect the diversity and variety that each race brings to the tabletop game, we’d have to design unique campaign and battle mechanics, styles of play, and ultimately flavour. It was almost like working on a bunch of historical eras simultaneously. In short, we found ourselves being pretty choosy about which races we would concentrate on making playable.
Nothing exists in isolation though. Take the Dwarfs – there are a bunch of factions in the lore such as Karak Norn, Karak Hirn and even the lost clan of Kraka Drak, surrounded by chaotic marauder tribes way up in the wilds of Norsca. So we built many minor factions for each race, gave them personalities of their own, and while the playables are the stars of the show, this supporting cast, whether noble, capricious or downright bloodthirsty, brings a lot of texture and colour to your campaign.
Start a campaign as the Empire and one of your main victory conditions is to control a specific set of regions, through ownership, alliance or vassalage. So your first order of business will be to figure out which of the non-playable Elector Counts is friendly towards you, and which aren’t. Confederation is the ultimate diplomatic solution to controlling territory, but you need to be super-buddies with a minor faction to achieve this, and some of the Elector Counts just aren’t your-way-inclined. At which point you’ll turn to diplomacy by other means, as they say. Dealing with other factions of your own kind is part of the picture for each of the four core races, and brings both challenge and opportunity, fist-bump moments, and turns of terror where you realise someone has an agenda you didn’t know about.
As you might expect, not all non-playable factions are alike, and that can be especially true when you meet factions outside of the usual same-race distinction. Your carefully-woven web of apparent diplomatic stability can be quite upset by the arrival of a third party. Savage Orcs are a fine example. They don’t dwell in towns – eschewing even the comfortably Orc-y surroundings of their Greenskin cousins – and simply rove the world in bands looking for stuff to smash up.
When you’ve achieved a delicate diplomatic balance between a number of local factions and a tribe such as the Skull Takerz tears into your collective back-yard with a couple of doom-stacks, things can change rapidly. A weakened faction in your network of pals may be set upon by another ally looking to exploit the situation, and you may be called upon to make a difficult choice between them. Affront may be taken and allegiances may shift. Or you may make a friend for life in the struggle against a common threat.
When it came to choosing which non-playable factions to include for each race, it was really a balance of factors. Open any Army Book and you can disappear down a rabbit-hole of minor tribes and clans. Some are too important to the history of the world to miss out, while others may not be as important, but may be more notorious, or interesting in other ways; some are little more than a footnote.
Click the map above to enlarge
There are a wealth of design reasons for including a particular minor faction over another, and any one or more combination could come into play. Certainly, some of the more recent discussions have centred around adding more factions than we originally intended as we found the map and playthrough tests supported it. It could be that particular areas felt ‘contested’ enough already, or that a major faction needed a little more pressure or support in the early game to deliver the right level of challenge or selection of options. We feel we’ve struck a good balance in our choice.
It’s certainly worth saying while we’re on the subject, that when we talk about ‘balancing’, it’s natural to assume that means that all things are being made equal and ‘fair’. Frankly that would make the game pretty dull and there would be a lot less variation between playable races. Certainly some will be harder to play than others. Minor factions are a great way of populating and influencing the world around each race and help contribute to that overall feel and level of challenge that will fluctuate depending on which you choose. We certainly don’t want to have each race start with exactly the same set of concerns and be faced throughout with the same choice of paths.
For example, playing as the Empire, there’s a strong possibility you’ll start feeling some mid-campaign pressure from the north. The Norscan tribes will likely spend the early part of the game vying with each other for supremacy, but once that battle for dominance is settled (or perhaps reaches some sort of uneasy stalemate), they’ll turn their maddened gaze south to richer pickings, sharpen their axes and launch their longships.
I mentioned the Savage Orc tribe, the Skull Takerz, earlier. They are a great example of faction behaviour you won’t have seen in a Total War game before. Currently, they start with a small number of independent slavering hordes scattered through a region of the Badlands. They actively seek each other out in the opening stages of the game, drawn together by the lust for battle. If successfully united they will set out together, rampaging across the Old World in defiance of all borders (and common sense). How you deal with such a disruption (or nip it in the bud), is part of the range of strategic dilemmas you might face.
Every faction, playable or not, occupies a unique starting position that to some degree affects the flow of their game and the challenges they’ll face. Kislev, for example, is a dangerous place for humans to live (though no winged bears in this game, sorry). With Norsca to the north, the Vamps to the south and the Chaos Wastes to the northeast, they really are a buffer state. This brings interesting choices to the Empire player. Will you keep them at arms’ length and treat them as a shield against these forces? Or will you work overtime diplomacy in an attempt to confederate, gain a toehold in risky territory, and effectively become that buffer yourself?
In short then, minor factions are a crucial part of the whole tapestry. They’ll bring you challenge and intrigue, opportunity and danger, and we think you’ll enjoy the tactical and strategic depth, variety and flavour they bring to the game.
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