Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Balthazar Gelt - Empire 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 supports me:
https://youtu.be/a3x8XbKb83s
If you prefer to read:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Destroy the faction of Sylvania (Vlad);
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements;
The reward is +3 hero capacity for all heroes. Like I have said many times, the biggest advantage is also that you do not need too many buildings to have more heroes in your armies or more scouts.
This is a fairly short victory indeed, and it basically points you into finishing off the Vampire Counts faction. After that point in time, you are well poised to continue expansion wherever you prefer.
Long Victory:
- Achieve the short victory conditions;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements;
- Control all the provinces of the empire either directly or via vassals/allies;
The reward is +10 hero recruit level, great to ensure your casters have good spells right as you recruit them, or that you melee or support heroes can assist your army effectively right from the start.
Balthasar Gelt has the Wheel of Magic, and it gives him +2 hero capacity for Battle Wizards, -50% upkeep for battle wizards, and +10 armor to all armies.
These are decent buffs, more focused in battle actually, and a bit further into magic compared to Karl Franz.
Climate is rather average, although you do have pleasant climate in the mountains, which is really good. Avoid the northern areas if you can, although it may prove the most difficult task since the enemies will certainly come from there later in the game.
STARTING POSITION:
Starting position is rather average. You have an initial province with only 2 settlements, and only the mountains nearby can give you a 4 settlement one.
You are supposed to rush or at least eventually move over to Sylvania, but if you go too fast your home provinces may come under attack. Both borders are defensible, but soon you may have some enemies coming forth. The fort nearby, Fort Soll, helps to secure the south border for a while.
Most likely, defending there will become a constant task. Depending on how well the other Empire factions do, you may have a difficult or easy campaign.
Typical expansion is then to conquer anything nearby and move to Sylvania, while confederating or reconquering anything in your path. Later, gain control of the full empire, and then... the world? 😉
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
You are part of the order tide. Simple. However, although an alliance with the Dwarfs would be nice, they are also your closest neighbors. Conquering their lands if they end up being destroyed is the safest way, so be on the lookout for that opportunity.
One advantage is how easy it is to obtain gold from treaties and trade. Do it at the earliest opportunity.
Enemies will most likely be Vampire Counts, Ogres, Skaven, Greenskins, and Wood Elves. However, soon you may have Festus if Reikland falls, and others from the South. Expansion will only bring more enemies into the fray.
For outposts, Dwarfs, High Elves, and Bretonnia, just like for Reikland, should be a good idea. Get
their frontline or flying units.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
Prestige is the unique currency, used to influence other empire factions towards or against other empire factions. This should not be overlooked, as it is a great way to ensure you can influence the others to shun a faction; then you can dive in to assist in a war or take their settlements without too much issue.
Imperial authority is something to keep an eye out while you expand. It will influence the other empire factions to either love you or hate you, giving you some rather poor buffs, or giving you some crazy debuffs. It is more important to control in order to avoid an early civil war. Mind you, mid to lategame this is most likely inevitable and you will probably even wish it, but timing is important. When the civil war triggers, it gets rid of the debuffs, but the empire factions that are alive declares war on you.
Next we have the elector counts mechanic. Every state capital provides an assigned lord with specific buffs, an item, and elector count state troops. These are improved versions of your units. You may even wish to have an entire army composition based solely around those. Always remember to check if the lord you assigned to a specific state capital is taking optimal advantage of his buffs. NOTE: once you have all the state capitals, you can click the SUMMON THE ELECTOR COUNTS button, to make all state troops available to recruit.
Fealty is the degree of how liked you are with each Elector Count. Basically, keep developing diplomatic relations, and answer to the proper events to try and get specific ones to 10 - they will then offer to confederate, which is how you can do it. Seek out from the very beginning who has more fealty to you and try to focus on those as a confederation target.
The state troops themselves take some time to be added to the pool, but you can recruit them instantly. This may provide you with some tactical advantages to recruit someone in a hurry.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4;
Enemy hero action success chance reduced -15%; chance of intercepting an army increased +25%; corruption decrease -2;
Income from all buildings+5%;
Recruit cost reduction -5% and local recruit capacity +1;
Growth +20 and factionwide income from trade +5%;
It has pretty much the standards, I would love to have some research thrown in. Do not sleep on the chance of intercepting an army, specially if the Beastmen become an issue or if Wood Elves decided to come for you, it can help.
Army stances:
Channeling for 10% movement points; More useful under Balthasar Gelt obviously because of his magic power.
Encamp for 50% movement points, attrition immunity, enables replenish and access to Global recruit pool. (and vs Beastmen and Skaven - ambush defense chance. One of the few defenses vs their pesky ambushes);
Raiding for 50% movement points, immunity to most attrition;
Ambush for 25% movement points;
Forced march
The default stances, everything else seems done in variations of these. Very important to remember encamp whenever in any hostile territory to replenish and have a bit more defensive capabilities. Ambush is important to hide your army, not just try the ambush, luring the enemy into a bad position.
Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Balthazar Gelt - Empire Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts (continuation)
BUILDINGS, RESEARCH:
Pfeildorf only has a special building concerning income, although it is a tier 2 and rather good one.
The nearby Nuln province has great artillery, which helps into how Balthasar Gelt plays out.
Therefore, it is important that you consider war and occupation of Nuln in the near future.
Military requires 6 buildings, 2 of them that are possible in the minor settlements to the fullest. Tier 3 units are somewhat decent, with Greatswords, Handgunners, Mortars, and good cavalry. Tier 4, however, introduces Great Cannons, Helfire batteries, Demigryph knights, which are great for any playthrough.
Infrastructure (at highest tier values):
+40 growth and casualty replenishment rate +4%;
Income 500 gold;
Control +10, hero capacity +1 for Witch Hunters, Hero recruit rank +4 for Witch Hunters.
Campaign movement range for your armies in the region +15%; Growth +7; Income from all buildings +8%;
Overall some nice bonuses to be had from all these buildings. You may need a second province to build all units, and the obvious recommendation is Wissenland because of the Artillery bonuses there.
Research is quite nice. It focuses on every part of the game, more campaign or battle focused. The Diplomatic corps may seem expensive, but they may yet provide you with the necessary alliances in the long run to get some good outposts going, and some nice units to reinforce your armies. The elector counts research may prove unworth it, as by the time you can obtain it, they may already be under your grasp.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Blue line has reduced upkeep and replenishment, but only on the second part of the line. Nothing too important on the first part. Lightning Strike, of course, always your choice.
Redline is rather expensive. The main issue is that any alternative or lesser units will cost skill points in comparison with the elite units, so you may have a problem if you wish to vary your army compositions.
Warrior Priests provide replenishment, and may be essential considering climate and lack of better ways. However, the Empire does have nearly every type of hero, so these should give you some good choices to have some good variety.
Remember that with Gelt you can definitely benefit from a 2 caster combo, so take sometime learning the magic so you can have some great combination ideas to unleash upon your enemies.
Gelt gives some strength to artillery and Luminarks or Steam Tanks. Combined with the armor buff from the faction, and some buffs for other missile units, nothing wrong with having him experience some mobility based artillery. One note, if you have Gelt eventually as Elector Count of Wissenland, you have 20% missile strength extra for artillery.
You can however also have a demigryph based one with solid frontline and a barrage.
Or, just a solid frontline with missiles, supported by cavalry and varied artillery. Remember, Balthasar Gelt with some hero support will already be a massive damage dealer.
Moving forward, Huntsman General buffs from Greatswords and Halberdiers as well as Huntsmen. Therefore, some combinations are in order.
Finally, typical armies first, some secondary ideas for some sweeper armies, cheaper that can still fight. And then you can always have a fun elite stack with some cavalry focus for some fun combinations.
Remember, disclaimer: the heroes are just placeholders. I always like to have at least one caster and one melee hero, but nothing wrong with having one caster and 2 support ones, or 3, or 4... up to you. Just ensure you have a plan for those in battle.
FINAL NOTES:
A good variable location, and you may yet face totally different enemies. Different choices for you to make, but for the most part, keep other empire factions busy and loyal while you slowly build up to become the whole Empire yourself.
The proximity to the Empire's south borders may prove extra difficult should the Greenskins or Ogres become powerful. Against Sylvania is never an easy task as well.
The playstyle for Balthasar Gelt seems to then focus more on magic and having more casters in your armies. Nothing wrong with having some different combinations of lores to assist you, right?
Army consists of:
1- Average infantry;
2- Great missiles and artillery;
3 - Great cavalry;
4 - No single entities (true melee ones, like single entity monsters style)
5 - Lacks flying;
Replenishment is good as long as you are in the best climate. Later it will be a pain in the uninhabitable climates for certain. Difficult for a domination campaign.
After all of this, I hope you find it is time for you to play with Balthasar Gelt of the Empire;) Share your thoughts on the faction below and thank you for reading. Hope it helps.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940481137
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