Elspeth Von Draken - Empire Overview 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 is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8WmRohT1FE&t=1s
If you prefer to read, here we go:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Complete the Gunnery school tier 2;
- Destroy the factions of Sylvania (Vlad) and Fecundities (Festus)
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements.
The reward is +3 hero capacity for all heroes, which is great to ensure you always have enough heroes for scouts or for your armies, specially considering how early you can obtain this benefit.
A nice short victory indeed, it only requires you to expand into two different directions, but you should be able to do it well given your unique mechanics.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements
- Control all provinces in the Empire either directly or via vassals/allies.
The reward is +10 hero recruit rank, which is always excellent to have your heroes immediately being very effective, specially those with benefits for your army.
A nice long victory and rather easily achievable by Elspeth, who is definitely really well positioned for this goal.
Elspeth has the Power of Nuln, and benefits from:
- Access to the Imperial Gunnery School, which enables unit upgrades and special units.
- Research rate +10%
- Upkeep -15% for gunnery units
- Double experience gain for artillery and gunnery units.
Overall, a nice set of buffs, completely focused on the powerful missile units of the Empire, which she benefits so much that it is incredible. Easily a top faction for missile forces.
Climate is rather average to bad, unfortunately. Other than the Empire lands, having mountains as unpleasant does hinder future expansion into domination, and of course either a Southern focused domination or North focused domination will always have issues with the amount of uninhabitable. Not the best faction to achieve full map completion for sure, so try at your own stake.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting location is a 3 settlement province, and you are surrounded by friendly factions. Overall, you should have a very one-directional expansion, specially in the early game, towards the Vampire factions and the Greenskins nearby.
Be extremely careful with where you expand to, since controlling any part of the nearby mountains may trigger the wood elves against you, as it will generate animosity towards you. Taking any forts will bring forth Ikit Claw, Grom, or Skrag, so be careful and be ready to defend those threats.
So, typical expansion is to just control the initial provinces, expand to the immediate South, take the fort (care with Skrag) and then try to take out Vlad quite early. Elsepeth is rather uniquely equipped to deal with him, so take the opportunity when it arrives, and just be careful with any enemy expanding close to your borders.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
Diplomatically you are part of the Order tide, very simple to obtain alliances with other Empire factions, Bretonnia, Dwarfs and Kislev.
Enemies will be Vampires, Chaos, Greenskins, Skaven, Wood Elves... be very careful with the expansion into the mountains as it will trigger further enemies, and when you dominate the Empire lands, you will likely trigger Chaos and Norsca to come after you.
As for Outpost units, try to obtain some flying units from Bretonnia, some stronger infantry from the Dwarfs (or Thunderbarges, the dream), and maybe some Sleds and monsters from Kislev.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
Imperial Authority has been reworked, and it is quite simple now. The more the Empire lands are under Empire ownership, the better for you. Assist your friendly Empire nations or take the lands for yourself, and you will benefit from the nice buffs; if the enemies take too much, then you will have
debuffs, essentially.
You have access to Elector Count troops, which are basically better versions of some of the typical units from the Empire. As Elspeth, you unlock these units via research mostly.
The Imperial Gunnery school and the Amethyst armoury all work around your unique currency, Schematics. Gain those via battles mostly, and you can improve all your missile troops to become crazy good, and I do mean crazy!
Later, the Amethyst units are much better, improved versions of some of the missile units, including a hybrid infantry. These can be further enhanced for the ultimate missile-based army, including spell-like ammunition to destroy your enemies with ease.
The Gardens of Morr allow Elspeth to build at least 5 locations where she can have a Garden. This works similarly to the undercities, so you can choose which buildings to add there, and you can use it to teleport Elspeth, which can be very good when trying to control your domination over the Empire lands.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4, income from trade tariffs +5%
Chance of a plague spreading -40%, corruption -3, corruption in adjacent lands -1;
Growth +20, construction cost -10%
Recruit cost -10%, local recruit capacity +1
Income from all buildings +5%
Army stances:
Channeling for +15 Winds of Magic, costs 10% movement points.
Encamp for 50% movement, provides replenishment and global recruitment, as well as immunity to attrition.
Raiding, costing 50% movement, giving you immunity to attrition too
Ambush, concealing your army costing 25% movement
Forced March
Overall a really balanced set of edicts and stances, allowing you to easily adapt to the circumstances of the campaign. I recommend keeping an eye on your Edicts at least every 2 turns to ensure you are maximizing effects.
Elspeth Von Draken - Empire Overview Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Part2
BUILDINGS, RESEARCH:
Nuln has two specific buildings. The Nuln Gunnery School unlocks recruitment of the Steam Tank variation from the Elector Count troops, gives you recruitment rank and cost reduction benefits for Artillery and gunnery units, and also schematics per turn.
Black Rose Chapterhouse reduces upkeep of most cavalry, and allows you to recruit the Knights of the Black Rose. It also gives them the passive ability "Iron Resolve"
Military has been modified and it is much better now. You have 6 military buildings, with 3 being able to be built fully in a minor settlement. Tier 3 units are now formidable, including units from all types, and only the Demigryphs and advanced artillery units go for tier 4 and 5. Landships and the new Steam tanks are very powerful and will be good additions to your forces.
As for infrastructure:
- Growth, replenishment
- Income
- Control, reduced upkeep, reduced recruitment costs
- campaign movement increased, local recruitment duration reduced, income from buildings
An optimal set of infrastructure should allow you to easily adapt to the needs of your growing empire.
Research is quite good as well. You have immediately the option of improving units or campaign, and you can also acquire benefits for diplomacy or against typical enemies.
Specific for Elspeth you have good techs to increment her mechanics, and you can also unlock the desired state troops, although it can be costly in the early game.
What I enjoy is how you can seriously upgrade units right from the starts so you can have some variety from early to lategame.
LORDS, SKILLS:
Blueline includes replenishment and reduced upkeep in the last part of the line, but nothing really important in the first half. I like to take reduced attrition since it always helps the faction overall.
Redline has been reworkd a bit, and now mostly has infantry in the same skill. With the addition of the landship and the steam tanks, it is far more viable to go for "Mighty Forge", but the artillery skills are always a favorite among players.
As for heroes, warrior priests provide replenishment and are quite good to defend your troops and make them fight for a longer time with their defensive auras. Caster heroes allow a lot of different options, and the new Engineer fits like a glove into a heavy missile playstyle.
ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Elspeth does not directly influence a lot of troop types, but do not neglect using gunnery units with her. That is why I selected a few combinations, and of course, you can always get artillery instead of the landship/steam tank combinations that I provide here too. It is simply for flavor, and the second army is to have a combo with only DLC units 😜
Then I provide combinations for every single Lord type, depending on what they improve in terms of units. General of the Empire now has some nice benefits, to it is good to have some cavalry focused armies, perhaps as reinforcements. The new Landship and steam tanks work really well in this composition too, firing from the front and charging the enemy.
Arch Lectors can bring the most typical balanced compositions, while the new Master Engineer will excel having missile units, of course. Note the Research rate increase from them too;)
If you prefer to shun the guns in favor of archers and crossbows, Huntsman Generals should give you enough of a choice for some of those armies, specially with some cavalry support.
A note: your hero choices can definitely vary, I only try to include one melee or support hero, and one caster hero, but definitely tons of combinations exist specially with all the Legendary heroes. Try whichever you prefer, just have a plan for it.
FINAL NOTES:
Elspeth has really improved the Empire missile focus to make them one if not the best faction at it. Tons of variety and a lot of improvements throughout the campaign will make sure you will always want to fight another battle just to check out the new improvements.
Amethyst units are excellent to bring swift purple rain against your enemies, and quite thematic as well. Be careful with line of sight situations, but otherwise, you should just have some fun with guns, guns, guns.
Your army consists of:
1 - Good infantry (Elector Count troops now balanced this)
2 - Great missiles and artillery
3 - Great cavalry
4 - Good single entities (finally!)
5 - Lacks flyers (other than lords and heroes)
Replenishment is decent, specially with Warrior Priests in your armies, but the climate is against you. Terrible when you are expanding far away from the Empire lands. Domination is not an easy victory to achieve due to it, so make sure you keep replenishing your forces before continuing conquests.
Time for some Purple Rain with Elspeth von Draken, of the Empire.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3249878095
More Total War: WARHAMMER III guilds
- All Guilds
- Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Crone Hellebron - Dark Elves overview, guide and second thoughts
- Guide pour dverrouiller les cinmatiques dans la visionneuse narrative
- Total War: WARHAMMER III Guide 1449
- Total War: WARHAMMER III Guide 1446
- Thorgrim - Dwarf Quarreler, starting 30 turn guide
- Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Kholek - Warriors of Chaos campaign overview, guide and second thoughts
- You Won't Believe How Easy Submodding Is, AKA: how to make all your mods play nice with each other
- Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Sigvald the Magnificent - Warriors of Chaos campaign overview, guide and second thoughts
- Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Drazhoath - Chaos Dwarfs campaign overview, guide and second thoughts
- Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Imrik - High Elves campaign overview, guide and second thoughts