Overview
Hi, I’ve been playing this game constantly since I bought it a couple of weeks ago, for me it’s turned into one of those games that I just can’t stop playing, so I thought I’d put into text some strategies that I use and some general advice and tactics that can be applied to any warband. I predominantly play a Chaos warband, but I do play all the other ones too… Skaven, mercenaries and sisters, in that order of preference 😉
Mission selection
I almost always choose missions that allow me to start with my warband grouped together, there is safety in numbers. These are good missions to choose.
If there aren’t any missions with my preferred deployment options, I’ll look at these for my next preference…one group is scattered and the other deploys around their wagon.
This is not too bad as its 50/50 what option you get and if you don’t get to deploy around your wagon you at least know where the enemy is from the start.
I almost never choose any mission (any more) that has the word “strike team/patrol” in the deployment description…these missions have led to warriors on my warbands having to spend lots of time nursing, licking, bandaging or dribbling on (I’m thinking of the mutants here) their wounds.
Finally I never (anymore) choose missions where both warbands are scattered…it can lead to some really fun and intense matches, but ultimately it is not fun when your favorite warrior is killed because of being deployed (through no fault of your own) next to a Rat ogre and 2 of his rat ninja friends.
Having your warband scattered or in small groups at the start of a match is not a good idea, as individual members may be unlucky enough to be set upon by 2 or more enemies before they can all regroup. This can then lead to a race to bring units to their aid before they are cut down, which in turn can lead to those units getting into a mess as they get ambushed on the way.
If you all start together you are in a much better position to decide your strategy.
Optional mission objectives.
General rule: These objectives are just what their descriptions states…optional.
You gain more experience for completing them and perhaps better rewards at the end of the match, but when starting out with a new warband these objectives are not top priority although they become much easier to complete as your warband levels up, they should never be the main objective…In summary if you can complete them (without too much risk)…great… if not, just win the match.
One mission that I have not as yet been able to complete is the “crush their will mission” (capture the flag) at least not against the AI, I think this is much more a PvP skirmish mission objective.
Warpstone and shipments.
General rule: Regarding warpstone, pick up as much as you can without endangering your warband members.
What I do is at the start of the match is to identify which warpstones I can pick up on the way to where I want to engage/ambush the enemy. Once the melee starts and if I get the upper hand I will often break off a few henchmen and send them to pick up other warpstones that are more out of the way.
Regarding shipments, you are given X days to collect and send a specific weight of warpstone to your main sponsor for which you will only receive gold, no fame. Fame is only achieved for extra warpstone sent or unrequested shipments.
Collecting the weights for the shipments really shouldn’t be a problem and as there is no advantage to sending a shipment early… you can wait until the last day to send it. Obviously while you have a shipment pending you won’t receive another request, so you can use all the time to collect as much warpstone as you can/want. Thus you can send off as much as you want for extra for gold and fame and/or keep it for the next shipment request.
Just remember that warpstone is your main source of income for your warband…although later on selling looted items can net a fair amount too.
The fallen (Out of action)
Just a quick tip now that I mentioned loot, if you want the bodies of the fallen to stay on the battlefield then you must loot all the items they carry before the end of the current turn…something I like to do so I can see all the carnage of the battle.
The mission map.
Just a quick note on this, this may be it was just me, but it took me a while to get use to the fact that the map makes distances seem further than they really are…but once you get used to this, it is not a problem…just something to bear in mind.
Also remember that the markers you can set on your map are very helpful for marking things you want to pick up or for making sure you don’t get lost on the way to visit grandma.
Tactics.
General rule: Keep you warband together!!! Have I said that already?
The (my) basic rule is keep everyone together so they can all cover each other. At the start of a match choose where you want to make a stand and then get everyone there and set up ready for the enemy…if the enemy doesn’t appear, send out a scout to lure them to you.
If you use archers (I do) look for a place where they can shoot from an elevated position and then have your warriors deployed to cover them i.e. ambush/block access to your archers. (Ambush is not always the best stance).
Regardless of if you use archers or not, you’ll want to have your warriors positioned where you’ll have 2 or more of your warriors attacking just one of the enemy…so look for those choke points…doorways are your warrior’s friends…stairwells too.
What to expect from enemy AI controlled warbands.
What I’ve experienced playing against the AI
Chaos…they will rush you even if they haven’t detected any of your warband. Use this to your advantage, just deploy around your wagon or a location of your choosing and wait for them to come. As they have to travel to you (the further the better) they will become dispersed along the way and arrive in 1’s, 2’s and 3’s … just cut them down as they do.
Skaven…Fast in general, dodgy little critters, so bear that in mind when choosing where you want to make your stand or they might be there waiting for you…or worse they’ll catch you before you are ready. In general they do have to detect you before they all start rushing, but if they haven’t, they will come looking for you.
Sisters…Hard hitting melee warriors with spell support. Archers in high up places are the easiest way to deal with the sisters…turn them into (large fleshy) pincushions! The sisters seem to have to detect you before they rush you…The AI seems to move them to a point on the map where they will then wait for you to appear.
Mercenaries…experts of all, masters of nothing…well maybe ranged attacks…but not the AI controlled warbands. Slow in general, normally if you face these you are almost always guaranteed victory. The AI seems to move them to a point on the map where they will then wait for you to appear.
AI Targeting
The AI will go out of its way to target the weakest member of your warband, so if the new recruits life wasn’t hard enough already, the enemy will be doing their best to make it even harder…or perhaps I should say shorter.
The same goes, on ocassion for badly injured (low health) warband members, the AI will target them mercilessly.
“Alt” key — Buffs, Debuffs and other useful information.
The “alt” key will cycle through a whole list of useful popup information displays while in a match, from what buff or debuff you just got for picking up that warpstone to a full list of the enemies stats when targeted…including their dodge chance. See the dodge chance of your enemy goes a long way to explaining why your 95% hit chance just missed 4 times in a row when the enemy has an 80% dodge chance of their own!
Here are a few screen shots of 1 of my Mutants vs a Youngblood.
Resistances
Buff
Debuff
Stats
Equipment, enchantments and skills
I could go on and talk about equipment, enchantments and skills, but that would make this guide a lot longer…and at the moment I don’t have the time. What I will say regarding skills (in my opinion) is that it best to use one or two active skills per warband member and set the rest as passive skills…as a warrior won’t have the points to use lots of active skills in combat per turn, but passives are always active regardless.
Multiplayer.
The advice given above may or may not (Mission selection I’m looking at you) be applicable to PvP skirmish matches…so far I’ve only managed to have one PvP match…which by the way was a really fun …If I get the chance, I’ll play more PvP (when I say chance, I mean people to play with)… so feel free to friend / message me and we can get some matches going 😉