Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Morathi - Dark 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 wish to watch the video, it also helps me out:
https://youtu.be/3jBXcuI5Yo4
If you prefer to read, here you go:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Destroy Har Ganeth (Crone Hellebron);
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements;
The reward is +3 to recruit rank of all armies, excellent to allow for better recruits and overall experience during the course of the game.
This is quite an easy campaign, although it may take a while if Har Ganeth happens to become a major power in the north.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements;
- Control the Shrine of Khaine;
- Destroy the main High Elf factions, including the far away Order of Loremasters (Teclis) and Knights of Caledor (Imrik);
- Control the province of Eataine;
The reward is +15% income from slaves. Although good, it will likely be so far into the campaign that it will be slightly irrelevant, unless you are lucky and both Teclis and Imrik die on their own.
This is a very, very lengthy long campaign. It is not uncommon that you achieve domination even before the long victory.
Morathi is the Hag Sorceress of Ghrond, and she benefits from:
Spreading Slaanesh corruption;
Can recruit Slaanesh Daemonettes;
Hero action cost -50%;
Construction cost -25% for Sorcery buildings;
Slaanesh corruption +1 to all characters.
Basically, Morathi works out completely different than Malekith. Her main idea is the Slaanesh corruption and vibe, with the recruitment of Daemonettes, and a focus in the Sorcery and magic of the faction.
Climate is rather average, since most of the south and the east is either unpleasant or uninhabitable. It is not the easiest faction to dominate the whole map with.
STARTING LOCATION:
Very good start, tucked in capital, great special building, 4 settlement province... everything you should wish for is there.
The nearby enemies will be the High elves and some Dark elves, with Wood elves, Beastmen, Vampire Coast, Tomb Kings, Lizardmen... they can all show up and cause trouble.
Typical expansion is to either take Ulthuan first or to go through the north. Lustria is a possibility, but may add further enemies that are not necessary considering your faction's objectives.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
You are part of the evil tide;
In addition, your unique Slaanesh devotion brings you closer to N'Kari. Gifting him a settlement to ensure his survival might be detrimental to a different playstyle.
It should be noted that you have a non-aggression pact with Hexoatl. Contrary to when you play as Hexoatl, he does not typically provoke a war with you.
Outpost solutions are most likely with N'Kari, for fast units and infantry, Vampire Coast, for some artillery and range, and even Lizardmen if you can, for some dinosaurs, particularly with healing 😉
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
Slaanesh corruption gives some extra positive effects with the slaves mechanic;
Slaves were modified from Warhammer 2; It is not globally generating income, with some nice buffs if you obtain vast numbers of slaves; it is, however, difficult to maintain and requires you to pay attention to anything that would reduce the amount of slaves overall.
Slaves are also used for Dkitats, which provide either lots of control, treasury and control, or growth and less construction costs in the province.
Rites also use slaves. You can:
1 - Sacrifice to Mathlann, to generate a black ark, which is like a horde army style on the sea, where you can build up, and it assists nearby armies with bombardment army abilities as well as replenishment.
2 - Sacrifice to Hekarti, gaining winds of magic to all armies, experience gain percentage and per turn for sorceress, and hero action success chance increased by 40%;
3 - Sacrifice to Khaine, to get more casualties per battle, more income per battle, more casualty replenishment rate and an army ability (explosion);
4 - Sacrifice to Atharti, to gain loyalty from your lords and a good buff to control to every province;
Overall, there are great choices, with Black Ark's being fundamental to the gameplay. Do not neglect the hero actions under Morathi as they are effective and quite cheap too.
One of the best mechanics in the game belongs to the Dark Elves in the form of Names of Power. At level 10 you can choose a name of power for your lord and some heroes, with drastic implications for the army as well as overall playstyle.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Control +4;
Income from all buildings +5%;
Income from post battle loot (factionwide) +5%; recruit rank +1 and weapon strength for armies in the province +10%;
Growth +20, rush construction slave cost +10%;
Enemy hero action success -25%, ambush chance improved +20%, chance of intercepting enemies +25%;
These are quite thematic and interesting, and they have removed currently (patch 3.1) the edicts that removed the number of slaves.
Army stances:
Channeling is what allows replenishment; cost 10% movement points and of course grants more winds of magic;
Raiding gives slaves, immunity to attrition; only costs 25% movement;
Ambush costs 25% movement;
Forced march.
Overall, basic ones but there is a distinct lack of Encamp; This makes the faction very tricky to conquer any uninhabitable climates (since they cannot both replenish and be immune to attrition);
Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Morathi - Dark Elves Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts (continuation)
BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH:
3 special buildings, including the Court of the Dark Prince; You get a lot of income, control, growth, research rate from the landmark Sanctum of Quintex, and from the Court you get Slaanesh corruption, hero capacity and rank for Death Hags and more control, as well as recruitment of Exalted daemonettes.
8 Military buildings, including the daemonettes' building; 3 can be built in minor settlements, and their tier 3 units are quite excellent already. Shades, heavy infantry, artillery, cavalry, monsters... you can work well with just tier 3 units for sometime.
Having daemonettes on tier 2 helps specially with a fast moving army, so you can deal tons of damage early on.
Infrastructure:
1 - growth, casualty replenishment rate, faction slave capacity, income from slaves;
2 - Income, slaves reduced per turn;
3 - Less control, slaves per turn, more slave capacity;
4 - Campaign movement range for your armies, growth, income from trade, slave cost reduced for Diktats, income from all buildings.
Overall these are good options and plenty of different choices in to go in terms of armies.
Research variest slightly from other Dark Elf factions in terms of giving some corruption and some small buffs to daemonettes too. Overall, like all DE, it is a great research tree that adds tons of campaign and unit upgrades. Worthy to check out in the beginning and plan out some techs to beeline for.
Death Hags provide replenishment, so I would say most of your armies will require one for certain.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITIONS:
Starting with the blue line, upkeep and replenishment in the second part of the line. In the first part you do have Dreaded Slaver to get more casualties from battles, which helps overall with getting more slaves and can be an option.
Although you have Daemonettes, nothing in the redline skills actually enhances them...I would count them more like outpost units than anything.
The redline proves to be rather average to expensive, mostly because it separates elite units, and cavalry units from monsters. If you wish to have variety in an army, it costs to upgrade them all.
All of the schools of magic are damage dealing focused. It works well with the faction, to dish out tremendous amounts of damage once you are close.
The names of power, listed above, can drastically chance an army, and you should try to optimize your armies to them.
Morathi has some bonuses to units, either 5% ward save to everyone, or Shades, Dark Riders, doomfire warlocks and scourgerunner chariots. Thus, some combinations including Daemonettes as frontline are in order. The third army possibility that I give is based on speed, an interesting mobility idea, who knows if you enjoy;)
For your basic armies, you can use a lot of combinations, including having some effective tier 3 armies. Nearly everything has armor piercing damage, so you have no issue facing heavily armored opponents.
The Beastmaster lords have specific buffs for most monsters, including for Cold Ones, so they are excellent to build up some armies focused on the creatures.
Do not forget the names of power. Some of the armies that I present here have a bit of thought into the names of power as well, but you can definitely have different compositions around it.
As always, a disclaimer: I put a caster hero and a melee hero as default, as I always advise to at least have one of each for variety and flexibility. However, you can change how many you bring and what type, those are placeholders really.
FINAL NOTES:
The faction is still focused on the slave mechanic, encouraging you to keep fighting and raiding and razing. It adds a nice twist with the Slaanesh corruption and the relation with N'kari, so if you keep them alive, you may have an interesting campaign.
It is difficult to conquer the whole map or even just complete the long victory. You have some mobility with the Black Arks, but for the most part, coastal areas are your thing. That is where you can unleash your full power, and where the faction truly shines.
Morathi benefits from having a nice location to have a different experience from Malekith, and certainly the whole Slaaneshi vibe is enough to warrant a more varied playstyle.
Your army consists of:
1 - Great infantry;
2 - Great missiles;
3 - Great cavalry, but expensive;
4 - Great single entities;
5 - Good flyers;
6 - Armor piercing emphasis;
7 - Lacks health overall;
8 - Lacks some range.
Replenishment is good, but climate is the biggest deterrent to it.
Still, I believe it is now time for you guys to consider a next playthrough as Morathi;) Let me know in the comments what you think.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940477103
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