Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Thorek Ironbrow - Dwarfs 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.
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VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Reforge at least 5 Artefacts via the Forge.
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
The reward is +3 hero capacity to all heroes, great to give you some potential scouts or just more heroes for your armies, and you avoid building too many of the needed buildings to increase their capacity too.
This is a decent sized campaign, it may take a while if you are under constant threat, though.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements;
- Ensure that the total severity of grudges in the Great book of Grudges is no greater than 9.
The reward is +10 hero recruit rank, excellent to give you great heroes as you continue on your conquests.
A rather longer campaign, but still worthy of its definition and it should give you more than a nice challenge.
Thorek is the Master of the Runes, and he benefits from:
- Oathgold from buildings +100%
- Oathgold cost for crafting Runes -50%
- Hero recruit rank +5 for Runesmiths
- Upkeep -25% for Runesmith heroes
Good bonuses to get a lot done with the Forge and to ensure your Runesmiths are always great accompanying your armies.
Climate is good, specially given your location, but it still not one of the easiest campaigns to do full domination victory with. The main issue is that desert is unpleasant and you might have to expand into it very soon in the campaign, which hinders you a bit.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting location is a 3 settlement province. It would be a bit better if it was not because you are neighboring some powerful enemies such as Mannfred, but you do have that tools to deal with it early.
Typical expansion is then to solidify your initial position and conquer at least one Legendary Lord nearby to give you some breathing room, depending on whether you wish to go vs Mannfred or vs Khalida, really.
A hard campaign start, I would recommend taking it slowly and ensuring you keep an eye on diplomacy and on the nearby potential enemies.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
Diplomatically, you are part of the Order tide. However, there is a substantial lack of it nearby, so be weary.
Lizardmen, under Kroq-Gar, might prove a useful ally if you can ensure good relations with them. It would be wise to declare some wars vs their enemies, and to negotiate your way through some initial treaties.
Typical enemies will be the Undead and the Greenskins for certain. Later on, Skaven will definitely be a target.
Outpost potential then is Lizardmen and Empire units, and for that, try to get some single entities and cavalry, or even flying units.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
The forge is a crafting mechanic that allows you to build a variety of items; you collect Oathgold after battles and some buildings, as well as Quests, and you use that Oathgold to improve your characters.
You have access to Runes too, which can either be used to enhance your unit abilities or their stats.
Specific to Thorek is the Artefact vault. There are several parts around the World for some artefacts that will give you immense value, such as that you can summon an ancestor hero, or add a yoked carnosaur, or some nice runes that give you army abilities.
The Great book of Grudges is a nice mechanic that consists mainly of missiones, but these depend on what is happening during the campaign. If any faction "wrongs you", you may be given a grudge to settle.
In addition to the rewards of fulfilling a grudge, you also have the impact of the overall severity of grudges, which provides great benefits, particularly in terms of research and construction costs.
Remember Grudges need to be very low to even complete the Long victory.
Another mechanic is the Rune Magic, as the Dwarfs have a different system in place. Instead of costing Winds of Magic, it has cooldowns which apply to each caster, implying that having one caster is typicall enough in your armies.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4; Corruption -3;
Income from all buildings +5%;
Growth +15; construction cost -10% for all buildings; tradeable resources +5%
Recruitment cost -10%; Local recruitment capacity +1;
Very good ones, great for any circumstance, just a shame there is no research edict.
Army stances:
Underway, a great tactical advantage of the Dwarfs, allowing you to travel through impassable terrain.
Encamp, giving replenishment, global recruitment, and immunity to attrition, for 50% movement;
Raiding, costing 50% movement, giving immunity to attrition;
Ambush, costing 25% movement
Forced March
Fairly typical ones with the exception of the Underway, which is an excellent way for the Dwarfs to move fast or to surprise the enemy.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Thorek Ironbrow - Dwarfs Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts (continuation)
BUILDINGS, RESEARCH:
Karak Zorn has 2 special buildings if you count the mine. The Hall of the Ancestors gives you Lord recruit rank +1, upkeep reduction, recruit rank and recruit cost for Longbeards. It also gives you +2 recruitment capacity, which is excellent for a nice early game since you can obtain this building at tier 1.
Your full military requires 6 buildings, but 2 may be built fully in minor settlements. There are no tier 5 units, implying the Dwarfs can actually reach their elites much faster.
Tier 2 and 3 units may surprise you. Even basic infantry has a great staying power.
Infrastructure:
1 - Growth and replenishment
2 - Income
3 - Trade resource and control
4 - Oathgold, income from trade, resources produced factionwide, and income from all buildings.
You have plenty of mines around that provide great income, and you should very much take the opportunity whenever possible to go for those settlements.
Research is one of the best around, although lenghty. It will take ages to finish, so ensuring that you have a lot of research buffs will always help you in the long run, choose well your next research, for it will take time.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Blue line does not have replenishment in the second part of the line, lacks upkeep reduction, but the last skill is important, since it gives you research. Given how most of your Lords should be able to get it, at least a little will always give you quite an advantage in terms of Research.
Redline is probably one of the best in the game, good compositions and alternatives without spending too much.
There are some great combinations, such as irondrakes with an artillery unit as well, or the elite infantry which includes frontline, anti-infantry, and anti-large. You can have good compositions without spending too many redline skills to benefit every unit.
Thorek gives massive bonuses to Quarrellers to the point you can have an army full of them and they will be your frontline. Easily. Some artillery as support and you have quite an army.
The remaining two pages are about some compositions, and of course feel welcome to make any changes. Remember you can always change some units for Outpost units, specially anything mobile, which cements the factions' strength.
Note how cheap it is in terms of Redline skills to benefit entire compositions that are quite resilient and varied. You have great sweeper armies since they are so good lategame.
As for lords, Runelords require their Runemagic to be more effective, so you might want to take Runesmiths instead and just use Lords.
No hero that provides replenishment; this does not help. However, they all help out the army in one way or another, and the Master Engineer may prove invaluable with his abilities to help ranged units.
FINAL NOTES:
Thorek brings a bit of fresh air to the Dwarfs, given his starting location, the enemies nearby, and his unique artifacts and short campaign victory. It is definitely one I would recommend if you have the DLC to try out the Dwarfs with.
For the most part you will be focusing on the ranged part of your army, which is always a nice change of pace of those lords that focus on the melee part.
Your army consists of:
1 - Great infantry
2 - Great missiles and artillery
3 - Average flyers
4 - No cavalry
5 - No single entities
6 - Specific rune magic
Replenishment is good, considering that you do not have a hero to assist, but likely you are going to be expanding at least into suitable or unpleasant terrain.
Time for you to play and seek out those artefacts, with Thorek Ironbrow.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3034882351
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