Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Eltharion The Grim - High Elves Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts
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, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MoodEwPLvA
If you prefer to read, here it goes:
Short victory:
Upgrade Athel Tamarha 5 times using Warden's Supplies
Destroy the factions of the Top Knotz, Teef Snatchaz, Bloody Handz, and Exiles of Khorne.
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
The reward is +3 hero capacity to all heroes, which is good to ensure you keep having good heroes in your armies or scouts, specially given your dual start.
Long victory:
Achieve the short victory
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements
Upgrade all of Athel Tamarha's facilities to the maximum using Warden's supplies.
Destroy the factions of the Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits, Scabby Eye, Clan Mors, Clan Skryre, Broken Axe.
Ensure Tor Yvresse is in your or ally hands.
The reward is +10 hero recruit rank, which is excellent specially for caster heroes or just to make sure your melee and support heroes have some abilities to assist in battle.
Both victories are quite long, requiring a variety of efforts and fights against different factions. The good part is that you do have a unique long victory condition which is much more interesting than the typical one for the other High Elves.
Eltharion has The Realms of the Mists, which gives him the following benefits:
Has access to the Dungeon of Athel Tamarha;
Can spread the Mists of Yvresse, cloaking Eltharion and his allies' land in a defensive shroud
Diplomatic relations - 80 with Greenskins
Recruit rank +3 for Spear and ranger units.
These benefits will ensure you are at war with Greenskins for the whole campaign, while also giving you nice different mechanics to give you some challenge and decision making well into the lategame.
Climate is rather average to good. At least the main locations you will be expanding into are pleasant or unpleasant climate, but there are far too many unpleasant or uninhabitable climates for you to consider this a good domination style campaign. It will take your time for it.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting location is a double one; you have an expedition with Eltharion into the Badlands, into the Greenskins. You also have your initial starting province in Ulthuan.
Expansion in both places is of course possible, but it should be difficult to be strong in both locations specially on higher difficulties. For the most part you should expand in the Greenskins lands and try to get a foothold there, while simultaneously just defending your homeland settlements.
You are prompted very soon to either retain your control on Ulthuan or to focus on the Badlands. Whatever you choose, just remember that decision will matter for the type of campaign you will have. For the purposes of this guide, I will consider you kept Yvresse.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
Diplomatically you are part of the order tide. Greenskins will be your main foe, joined later by Skaven and monogod factions.
For the most part, consider Empire and Bretonnia optimal targets for your outposts, Dwarfs too. Getting flying cavalry or armor piercing cavalry is always nice, but better artillery units from the Empire is always a blessing.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
Influence allows two things: recruitment of better lords and heroes, and you can also spend it to steer enemies and allies' attitude to you or another into whatever you prefer. Although it may prove costly, there are many possibilities to just ensure you can obtain a deal using influence.
Rites are also available and very nice, including:
1 - Winds of magic power reserves, experience gains for Archmages, Mages and Loremasters of Hoeth, as well as hero action success chance increased for them.
2 - Influence +2 per turn, construction cost -15% for all buildings, +4 Control
3 - Attrition from Mists of Yvresse increased, campaign movement range for enemies reduced, ambush success chance increased, enemy leadership reduced in regions with the Mists, army ability (stalk, unspottable, snipe);
4 - Dilemma that offers a powerful magical item, recrruitment cost, recruitment rank, armor for elite infantry and dragon princes; army ability for siege battles.
Should be noted these are all quite cheap overall, so you should strive to have one active at all times.
The Sword of Khaine is pretty far away, but Eltharion can become a beast with it. Always a nice option and can give you a very interesting campaign.
Yvresse Defense level is gained via Athel Tamarha upgrades, and consists of giving you the Mists of Yvresse, which cause attrition to enemies in your lands, with different levels. You also have different army abilities the better the blessings from Ladrielle's.
The Warden's supplies are a currency of sorts, used to upgrade Athel Tamarha. Speaking of Athel, it is split into 3 components: The Silent Sentinels, which are basically buildings to either recruit or augment the Mistwalker units; Watchers of Yvresse, which has mainly campaign bonuses, and the prison itself. You have an ability in battle to capture an enemy lord, and then you have some options to interact with the prisoner for some nice buffs.
The special units you obtain, the mistwalkers, are quite amazing and offer already a unique playstyle. You can either use them to complement your forces or even build a whole army of them, although it should be noted they are not influenced by redline or research skills in the same measure, so they can become a bit obsolete in the lategame.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
campaign movement range -10% for enemies. Enemy hero success chance -15%; ambush success chance +10%; chance of interception +15%;
Income from trade +4%, income from buildings +3%
Growth +20, construction costs -10%
Recruit rank +1, local recruit capacity +1;
Corruption -5;
You have nearly everything available, which means you do have some nice choices to adapt to the current situation.
Army stances:
Lileath's Blessing, giving you Winds of Magic +20 per turn, experience gain +20% for all spellcasters, miscast base chance -50% for all spellcasters, and speed +10% for all spellcasters. It costs 10% movement points.
Encamp, giving you replenishment, immunity to attrition, and access to the global recruitment pool
Ambush, costs 25% movement
Forced march
Notice the absence of any raiding stance, unfortunately. Other than that, the High Elves do have some decent choices.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Eltharion The Grim - High Elves Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts Part 2
BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH:
There are 2 special buildings in Tor Yvresse. First, the Amphitheatre of Yvresse, giving control and defensive benefits.
The resource that you have in Tor Yvresse gives growth and cavalry benefits.
More importantly, you do gain access to a specific building that gives you Mistwalker units.
Military requires 8 buildings, 2 of which can be built fully in minor settlements.
Tier 3 units are quite formidable already. Great holding infantry supported by great archers and cavalry, good armor piercing infantry and cavalry, single entities, chariots... all good. You have the Mistwalker units to fill in for some specific roles when you need.
Tier 4 and 5 units, however, completely upgrade the High Elves into one of the most dreaded foes on the battlefield.
Infrastructure:
1 - Growth and replenishment building
2 - Income.
3 - income and control.
4 - Income from entertainment buildings, recruitment for Nobles.
5 - Influence per turn (!), hero action success chance, income from trade and ports.
Do not neglect the influence building, specially early to midgame. Have maybe one or two somewhere to have a steady income of influence.
Research is crazy good. Plenty of campaign changes and unit upgrades overall, although it may take some time and it may cost you a bit. Your units will become super powerful later on, though.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Blue line has replenishment and upkeep reduction, as well as an interesting research one. The problem is how you may need to really make it count for those 50 skillpoints.
Redline gives you some great army compositions for units for every role. Most of the time, I build armies considering the specific lord skills and traits.
Heroes are excellent, and they provide bonuses to some units, such as the Handmaiden to ranged units.
Loremasters are great hybrids, and casters have a ton of lores of magic, allowing a lot of variety even within similar armies.
There are 2 heroes with replenishment abilities, so just ensure you have at least one of them in your armies to assist.
Eltharion focuses on the Mistwalker units, so of course you can definitely take only those units; some mixed armies work just as well. The flying cavalry ones are good, with armor piercing, and your frontline is easy to justify, with the shieldbreaker ability too.
Other standard armies may go into monsters or cavalry and chariots. Of course, your lords may have specific advantages including reduced upkeep for units, so that is why you may want to field a stack of Lothern Sea Guard with Reavers, for example.
I do enjoy having some interesting compositions around the Frostheart Phoenixes for that slow, but you are welcome to use any other alternatives even with the templates that I showcase here.
FINAL NOTES:
Eltharion has a nice split focus that you may have quite a lot of fun maintaining. On one hand, you are expanding into the Greenskins lands; on the other hand, you are ensuring your homeland stays protected.
The mechanics will force you into fighting a LOT of legendary lords and trying to imprison them, which is great. Once you get the idea, you should have no trouble gaining the necessary supplies and improving your faction as a whole with the Athel Tamarha mechanic.
Focusing on the Mistwalkers is not necessary, but of course I always advise going into the flavor of the campaign, specially if you have already played with the High Elves before.
Your army consists of:
1 - Great infantry
2 - Great missile infantry
3 - Good cavalry and chariots, lacking some AP;
4 - Great single entities;
5 - Average artillery (the one you get is quite versatile though)
6 - Lacking early armor piercing
Replenishment is good, considering the climate that you will mostly be facing. However, it is not the easiest faction to dominate the map with.
So, let's hunt down some Legendary Lords with Eltharion "Batman" The Grim!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3216284802
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