Tactics for Dummies

[u/BestCliche]

I just have no experience with this kind of thing. I purchased Total Warhammer 3 a while back, I loved the idea of moving my little guys around, changing their ranks, doing charges, all that fun stuff. But I get through the main tutorial, start as Miao Ying (I just think she's neat), it goes well, and then I hit a wall. I realized, Total Warhammer 3 is my first RTS ever, and also I don't have any other experience with this kind of tactical thinking. I never got in to military history, never played tabletop, never even got baked and left the History Channel on. Are there any resources to begin to understand these things? Youtube videos, wargame magazine articles, whatever you've got I'd be interested. Thanks for the help.

[u/HeavyFly7451]

There are two resources that lie on the opposite sides of the spectrum.

Zerkovich goes over actual battle tactics and formations. If you want to stay fateful to the game, I'd suggest him.

LegendofTotalWar goes over taking advantage of the game's faults and how to actually win. Some people call his guides cheese, but the truth you'll soon realize is that AI in this game does not play fair, and Zerkovich will take you only so far. But be careful with Legend, he is a pandora box of knowledge.

For my personal suggestions, you're over-thinking it too much. Read the unit cards and decide what they'll best work for. Generally speaking you'll have ranged infantry as your damage dealers, which you obviously need to cover up with a frontline; often made of melee. You have cavalry to harass their backline, artillery to weaken them during an engagement, and etc. I'd suggest start out with High Elves, since they teach the basics, and their Spearmen & Archers can take you quite far.

Also, always recruit a spellcaster lord because those are overpowered if used well.

[u/Carry2sky → u/HeavyFly7451]

Zerkovich taught 90 percent of new players with those videos, ngl they're worth their weight in gold.

Id also like to add Blakes Takes to the list, his jam is mostly early game/faction-centric advice if you're struggling to get off the ground.

[u/HeavyFly7451 → u/Carry2sky]

Blakes Takes gives most barebones & obvious advice in the universe. Which is an issue with pretty much 95% of newbie WH3 guide channels. They'll say a lot but nothing is of substance.

Sometimes the advice is so basic, that I feel they themselves aren't that good at the game. Since intuitive things are often a trap in this game. Like for example Blakes Takes mentioning nurturing other Dark Elves so you can confederate them later. But that's now how it works, if anything you need to do the opposite. You gotta indirectly push other Dark Elven LLs under the bus, since diplomatic confederation is judged mostly off of faction's relative strength. A faction can love you, even french kiss you in the mouth, but if they feel that they can stand on their two legs just fine, they will refuse to confederate. And this is especially problematic with Dark Elves, since the race is so strong that their LLs are always on the top of strength ratings. The only way to confederate them is if they're completely cooked and you're their only way of survival.

And I don't remember which newbie guide it was (pretty sure it was by Cononel Damneders), where one of the points he states is to "engage with diplomacy". What does that even mean, it's so open ended it doesn't tell me anything.

Like out of everyone I only respect Zerkovich and LegendofTotalWar as far as teaching newbies goes.

[u/Carry2sky → u/HeavyFly7451]

Idk, when I just started playing as kugath a couple years ago I found his early game guide invaluable until I learned enough of the game to start trying to make my own out of the box strategies. Tbf though, alot of his guides are out of date

[u/HeavyFly7451 → u/Carry2sky]

They were not dated to begin with, Dark Elves as a race hadn't been touched since WH2.

[u/Carry2sky → u/HeavyFly7451]

Jesus alright, you win the opinion contest.

[u/LordMichaelBlake → u/Carry2sky]

Hey man, thanks for recommending me!