Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Skarbrand The Exiled - Khorne 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.
For those that prefer to watch the video:
https://youtu.be/egIkQzxIb0I
For those that prefer to read:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Win the Slaughter & Carnage quest battle
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 35 different settlements.
The reward is rather unique. The Chainsword unique weapon. This is a truly remarkable weapon that will turn the already scary Skarbrand into a walking non-stop grinder machine with the safety off.
It is a pretty easy and fast campaign, and you definitely enjoy the faction while it prepares you for the longer victories.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory condition;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 80 different settlements;
- Destroy the faction of the Seducers of Slaanesh (N'kari);
The reward is fairly decent, considering how your lords need a specific level to turn to exalted, so +10 lord recruit rank really helps the faction.
Skarbrand is the Wrathful Reaper, and he benefits from:
- Armies replenish in foreign territory (!);
- Diplomatic penalty -10 with other Khorne factions;
- Campaign move range +15% after razing a settlement (all characters);
These buffs allow your armies to keep going and fighting and razing, and the whole faction suddenly feels like a monumental force of nature that no one can stop.
For climates, it is very good. The only true uninhabitable location is the magical forests, so everything else being at least unpleasant makes this an optimal faction to conquer the whole map with.
STARTING LOCATION:
Average starting location, honestly. You start in the Southlands in the thick of things, which is always an issue. Plenty of enemies nearby.
Adding to this, first province is a 3 settlement province with your initial settlement only being able to have 7 extra buildings.
First enemies will include Greenskins, Skaven, Dwarfs, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Lizardmen... everyone, really.
Expansion is perhaps the best part. Anywhere you wish, as it is quite a sandbox campaign; it is recommended to perhaps control the whole south continent and then move north. If Slaanesh is alive, go for Ulthuan.
Early expansion may drive you thin, so be wary of any counterattacks. Be aware that the nearby early Beastmen faction can have their bloodgrounds to hinder your fast settling.
DIPLOMACY:
You are Khorne, what are you doing reading this part? 😜
Well, Skaven and some Greenskins do not have aversion towards your faction, so they may yet prove to be allies before you eventually decide to collect their heads. Whoever is also fighting your enemies may yet like you, so there are some options. Norsca too, although they are far away.
For outposts then, Skaven, Greenskins, specially for missile troops should be quite handy.
MECHANICS:
- Skulls, skulls, skulls. They are used for a variety of reasons, your special currency. Research, capturing settlements, performing the skull throne ability, etc. Most of the time you obtain these via fighting battles or razing settlements.
- The Skull throne allows construction time reduction, campaign movement range, income from post-battle loot, +2 units for blood hosts, and the army ability that allows you to summon a Bloodletters unit. Should be done at nearly any time it is possible, really.
- Blood hosts are armies that can be generated by razing a settlement. They DO cost upkeep, so be aware of it; they are your army to move and fight with, as long as it survives and keeps fighting.
- Bloodletting is a bar that follows every army basically, and the more you fight and win, the better the buffs you obtain. Be wary of the debuff for growth, as having inactive armies will cause you to lose factionwide growth for no reason.
- Another mechanic is how the razed settlements can suddenly be colonized for free for you, just by having a settlement in that province. You should attempt to maximize this for a profit.
- Cults are basically a set of buildings that you can choose in an enemy settlement. It grants vision of that settlement and gives you some nice possibilities.
- Unholy manifestations give you a variety of options in accordance to the overall Khorne corruption in the map. A small army to fight (useful to keep your armies with good bloodletting), the Call of Battle to surprise enemies or run away, Slaughter Incarnate for +100% skulls is great before a big fight, and Khorne's glare can instantly get rid of a massive settlement and give you 10000 skulls! But note that it disables movement for 3 turns, be wary.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
- Construction cost reduced and Khorne corruption increase;
- Recruit rank and local recruit capacity, 1% melee attack;
- Control, lesser chance of plagues, and less movement range for enemies, and 1% melee attack;
- Income from all buildings and 1% melee attack
Overall, thematic ones, nothing with research or growth, sadly, and wish there was some to allow more skulls for example, to tie in to that mechanic.
Army stances:
Skulls for each unit, winds of magic power reserve increased, unit xp gain, at the cost of attrition to your army; (Note: winds of magic being low negatively affects your whole army with less replenish rate, leadership, and physical resistance, hence why it is still important to Khorne)
Encamp costs no movement points and provides immunity to attrition and replenishment as well as global recruitment;
Raiding costs 50% movement and immunity to attrition;
Ambush 25% movement cost
Forced march;
Typical ones and some thematic. It is extremely useful to be able to encamp at the end of your turn and recruit or replenish, which is a great way to ensure you keep moving into further conquests.
BUILDINGS AND RESEARCH:
Needs 6 buildings for maximum military, 3 of which can be built in minor settlements, which is awesome.
Two types of main buildings: one focused on military, the other on income;
Income is in every building. No dedicated growth building, though.
Infrastructure:
1 - income from all buildings, enemy leadership penalty;
2 - income from post battle loot to armies in adjacent regions; casualty replenishment rate;
3 - Control, with some added control buffs that are situational;
4 - building that enables attrition to enemies in the region; khorne corruption and hero and lord recruit rank increased; you also get income if an enemy lord is present.
Excellent unique set of buildings, and quite thematic which I love.
Research is also very useful. Many techs increase the blood hosts, and others give you either army abilities or buffs to your units. They benefit really well their roster overall, being one of the better tech trees for the monogod factions.
They all cost Skulls, though, which may prove to be costly in the early game, but later on, you will most likely have more than enough.
Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Skarbrand The Exiled - Khorne Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts (continuation)
LORDS, SKILLS:
- Blueline has replenishment right from the start. Upkeep reduction as well as plenty of other income based skills, such as more from sacking and raiding.
- Redline is quite nice (see below). Mostly it is divided into daemonic units and mortal units, and it allows a lot of different compositions without spending too many redline skills to buff them entirely.
- Skarby is already a beast. Seriously, one-man army experience for free right there. His special skills enforce this into making him as deadly as there is. His last specific skill gives him more speed after winning a battle and +3 units for bloodhosts faction wide, which you can imagine gives you a tremendous ability to overrun the world at that point.
- Cultist heroes allow replenishment and give you useful summons. Exalted hero is excellent as support as well.
- No magic should be noted, because it allows you to spend more skill points in other lines, so your heroes and lords will definitely be more powerful in those other areas.
Note that the Chaos lord has a different set of skills (see below), including a different redline and blue line, with casualty replenishment at the end of the blue line, for example.
ARMY COMPOSITIONS (see pictures below):
First, remember you have two sets of redlines, one for Heralds, another for Chaos lords.
For example, Heralds give more defense and physical resistance to mortal units, while Chaos lords give more armor and spell resistance.
Skarbrand can nearly fight alone, but a nice combination of mortal and minotaurs, with a couple bloodthirsters, should defeat nearly anyone. Similarly, nothing wrong with a daemonic fast army with some monsters.
Heralds, perhaps a daemonic build or a mortal build. Notice how few redline skills (number in yellow) are required to buff all those troops, very cheap.
Finally, Chaos lords really ensure mortal units are better overall, so here are two strategies for you, one involving some Minotaurs for anti-large, the other just relying on brute force at the front line.
FINAL CONCLUSION:
- Skarbrand is probably the best duelist around, capable of taking anyone out upon the battlefield, specially after leveling him up.
- The faction overall suffers from having no magic, so if you are a magic enthusiastic, you may want to stick to a shorter victory.
- Growth can be a pain due to the bloodletting mechanic, be wary of it, manage it, and then it becomes the opposite.
- The faction playstyle may feel one dimensional, yes, but... it is a FUN dimension to be it. Loot, destroy, raze, wreck, maim, etc, that is your goal overall.
- Finally, it is very easy to be on a negative income, so not a faction to play unless you know how to handle a negative economy (Tip: raze and sack all the time);
Your army consists of:
1- Great and powerful infantry;
2 - Weak missiles choices;
3 - Great monsters and single entities;
4 - Good cavalry and chariots;
5 - Lacks other missile options;
6 - Lacks any magic;
Replenishment is very good, probably one of the best factions around for it.
I believe now it is time, say it with me: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2940461578
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