Skulltaker - Khorne 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, it also helps to support me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9CP-K8Rqmw
If you prefer to read, here we go:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Empower 9 skulls in the Cloak of Skulls.
- 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. Very good for Skulltaker to take down enemy lords super fast.
This is a very short campaign and should be fairly easy to obtain. If you wish a nice short Khorne campaign to get a feel for the faction, definitely the recommendation.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 60 different settlements;
- Empower 18 skulls in the Cloak of Skulls;
- Perform 8 rituals in the Skull Throne;
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.
Skulltaker is the Slayer of Kings, and benefits from:
- Access to the Cloak of Skulls, which allows benefits to the faction after defeating Powerful Lords.
- Hero capacity +2 for Bloodreapers;
- The Daemons are reforged +10% chance for destroyed Bloodletters to be restored (all armies)
- Upkeep -15% for Bloodletters and Exalted Bloodletters of Khorne (all armies).
These bonuses solidify the idea that Skulltaker should focus a ton on the daemonic units, although it is not exactly an exclusive deal as you can definitely have some mortal based armies for sure, which is great.
In terms of Climate, it is fairly good, only Athel Loren areas are uninhabitable, and although some unpleasant climate areas exist, it is a great faction to attempt global domination with.
STARTING LOCATION:
Fairly good starting position, although you start surrounded by factions that will soon get to war with you, it feels that you have just the right tools and time to deal with them.
Typical expansion goes into finishing the initial enemy and then proceeding towards the Lizardmen factions and Bretonnia to the North... or go to the South. This means you have this very early decision in the campaign to make, with my recommendation being to stay a bit clear from the jungle and watch as the Skaven and Lizardmen battle it out to see who comes out on top.
You also gain access to the sea if you go North, which means you can obtain some of the goodies nearby to aid your campaign.
DIPLOMACY:
In terms of diplomacy, although Khorne may feel odd using it, you can get some nice allies. Skaven, Dark Elves, even Vampire Coast are likely to be friendly to you as you reap the skulls of the Lizardmen and other Order Tide factions.
Natural enemies are of course plenty, including the entire Order Tide and other Chaos factions. Therefore, expect to be always in a war, which honestly is precisely what should happen on any Khorne campaign.
Outposts with Skaven, Dark Elves or Vampire Coast should focus on missile units, or even some casters so you have a bit of magic if you wish.
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.
Unholy manifestations, which depend on the overall amount of Khorne corruption in the world. These are:
1 - Eternal War, summoning a small army to fight a target army (including your own, which is actually its main use).
2 - Khorne's glare, taking immediate control of an unoccupied ruin.
3 - Slaughter Incarnate, which gives 150% XP gains to the target character for 3 turns.
4 - Call of battle, which razes a target settlement.
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.
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.
Champion's essence is tied to the Cloak of Skulls, as it is the currency used for it. This specific mechanic of Skulltaker is gained by wounding or killing enemy Lords in battle. It allows you to have active effects on the Cloak of Skulls, which even includes another teleport feature for Skulltaker to attack enemy lords you see. Perfect for decisive action with Skulltaker.
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.
Skulltaker - Khorne Overview 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.
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.
Skulltaker is all about the Bloodletters and Exalted bloodletters. Combinations of them and other daemonic units make of course perfect sense. For Anti-Large, bring some Minotaurs with GW, who should do the trick, or you can have a nice combination with Skullcannons for some ranged possibilities.
Similarly, 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.
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.
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 then evolve the building for Bloodletters to gain Exalted bloodletters, and they benefit from the same redline skill. This makes it a clear upgrade. Same with Bloodbeasts to Minotaurs GW, although they are not specific anti-large, early game they can have that role, and 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:
Skulltaker is a very Daemon focused campaign. Of course, mortal units are welcome, but the theme, alongside plenty (TONS of) Blood Hosts, should be sufficient for one of the easiest "Conquer the whole map" campaigns. (even after the hotfix).
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. Still, lots of fun to be had of just having some of the best melee units in the game at your disposal.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 icnrease 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 Skulltaker, of Khorne!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3408663616
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