Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Zhatan The Black - Chaos 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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If you prefer to read, here we go:
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Short victory:
- Control the settlements of the Bastion;
- Destroy the faction of the Northern Provinces (Miao Ying);
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 35 different settlements
The reward is that Major Relic missions become available; workload requirements for Raw Materials -15%, and Raw Materials consumed by buildings -15%.
Very straightforward and easy campaign, good to have an idea about the faction. The reward is excellent and thematic.
Long victory:
- Achieve the short victory;
- Occupy, loot, raze or sack 80 different settlements;
- Hold the settlement of Zharr Naggrund;
- Destroy the factions of Karaz-a-Karak (Thorgrim), Karak Kadrin (Ungrim), and Grimgor's 'Ardboyz (Grimgor);
The reward is great, three legendary items for your lords, which is quite a different take than other races.
Harder long campaign that will take sometimes as you need to expand in the other direction.
Zhatan has a Blackened hear, Blacker soul, and he benefits from:
- Maximum number of Convoys +1;
- Recruitment cost -50% for Artillery and War Machine units;
Not a lot in terms of benefits, but it does have some impact, Convoys are gret economically and you are somewhat influenced into Artillery and War Machines.
Climate is of no importance for the Chaos Dwarfs. They can go anywhere and conquer without any issues.
STARTING LOCATION:
Your starting location is a 3 settlement province, and you begin with 2 settlements. Already a good start. You should be able to complete the province quickly and then proceed to your goals.
Typical expansion is then to control the Chaos Wastes into the Bastion Gates, and then into Cathay. You may have to deal with threats from the West, but you do have a nice chokepoint to defend so it is a very easy campaign in the beginning overall.
DIPLOMACY AND OUTPOSTS:
You are Chaos aligned, so other Chaos factions, Norsca, Beastmen, they might help you out. Skaven is a given too, specially as you fight their enemies.
You do not start in a position with any friends. The trickiest part is that you do start at war with some of the Chaos factions and will need to conquer their lands in order to pursue the Bastion.
Outposts then should come from Norsca and Skaven, definitely getting some of their monsters and some Weapons Teams seems like a good idea.
MECHANICS OF THE RACE AND FACTION:
- First, we have the three unique settlement types. Towers, Outposts, and Factories. Towers are only allowed in your province capitals.
- We have the 4 unique resources:
1 - Labourers, are acquired via battles, or Convoys, and are required to give you Raw Materials;
2- Raw Materials are mainly produced via mines and are used to construct buildings, convert into armaments or even treasury.
3 - Armaments are generated via Factory settlements and used mainly at the Hell-Forge, for increasing unit capacity or to improve your units;
4 - Conclave Influence is gained via settlement buildings and used to occupy seats at the Tower of Zharr.
- Every different settlement type has its own building tree, so you should familiarize yourself with them in order to be certain of what you wish for a specific place. Remember most advanced units can only be built at the tower settlements.
- Labour economy allows you to shift your labourers among your provinces, in order to enusre you are always working at maximum efficiency. Basically, it tells you when you have enough labourers or when you require a few more, and you can assign these to one another.
- Buildings can require gold, raw materials, or armaments to complete. You can always choose to spend some labourers in order to rush the job, allowing you to quickly grow your settlements if you wish.
- You do not have any growth mechanic. In fact, the only thing you need is labourers and raw materials, so fighting to obtain more and more labour is always key to ensure healthy and growing provinces.
- The Hell-forge allows you to increase your unit capacity for your better units, similar to how the Beastmen work. It also allows you to upgrade your units giving them specific abilities or attributes, by paying a maintenance cost per unit.
- The Tower of Zharr allows you to use Conclave Infulence to gain seats or steal others'. Controlling all seats in a district will unlock that reward to all Chaos Dwarf factions. All of the seats and specific districts confer some nice bonuses, so plan it wisely. You will further progress in the Tower until you are later given the opportunity to claim a seat to Confederate other Chaos Dwarf factions.
- Labour actions allow you to spend labourers to gain Conclave Influence, Gold, or Control in your province. Quite simple, similar to the Dark Elves or Slaanesh mechanic.
- Military convoys are similar to Cathay caravans. You send out a convoy to exchange one currency for another, so you should check what you are in need of, before proceeding. As the Convoy moves there will be events that you will need to decide the outcome, and you may have to fight your way out too.
PROVINCE EDICTS AND ARMY STANCES:
Edicts:
Rush Construction labour cost -10%, construction cost -10% for all buildings;
Recruitment cost -20%, recruit rank +2;
Income from Refinery buildings +10%; Armaments output +10%;
Control +2, chance of a plague spreading -25%;
Overall, quite thematic and allowing some decision in terms of Economy and growth factors.
Army stances:
Underway, allowing fast travel between difficult terrain, always a nice tactical option;
Encamp, costing 50% movement, enabling replenishment and access to global recruitment, as well as immunity to attrition;
Raiding, costing 50% movement, gaining Labour and immunity to attrition;
Ambush, costing 25%
Forced march
Very good choices too, allowing strategic options with the Underway stance and always ensuring good replenishment whenever needed.
Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires Zhatan The Black - Chaos Dwarfs Campaign Overview, Guide And Second Thoughts(continuation)
BUILDINGS, RESEARCH:
Special building in your capital that gives you income, raw materials and armaments, as well as recruitment for Chaos Dwarf units;
You have three possibilities of settlements: Towers, Outposts, and Factories. Each has different building possibilities.
Towers:
Required for your advanced military buildings, that also cost armaments.
Infrastructure:
1 - Lord recruit rank and hero recruit rank (factionwide); casualty replenishment rate;
2 - Income building;
3 - Control, control in adjacent provinces, campaign movement range;
4 - Raw materials consumed per turn diminished;
5 - Conclave influence per turn; Winds of Magic reserves to all armies. Diplomatic relations with Chaos Dwarfs. Recruit Rank +3 to Bull Centaurs.
You require 5 buildings for full military, but remember you can only go tier 4 and 5 at these Towers.
Outposts:
Main source of Raw Materials;
Has only basic Hobgoblin units recruitment options;
Infrastructure:
1 - Raw Materials per turn and Workload increase;
2 - Income, and income from post-battle loot (armies in adjacent regions)
3 - Campaign line of sight and control;
Factories:
Main source of converting Raw Materials into Armaments;
Has 3 military buildings, only going to tier 3;
Infrastructure:
1 - Armaments per turn at the cost of raw materials. Chaos corruption;
2 - Income at the cost of Raw Materials, chaos corruption.
3 - Raw Materials output for the local province.
Special note that you can have a hero unit, the Infernal Castellan, recruited in Factories. In addition, the Raw Materials output increase building may imply that at least one Factory per province is a good idea, specially for those 4 settlement provinces.
Construction costs range from Gold, to Raw Materials, to Armaments. Be prepared to juggle among all three as necessary.
In terms of Research, it is divided into three:
Industry, helping your economy mostly;
Sorcery, helping with magic and campaign buffs, for the most part;
Military, helping with upgrading your units and some campaign buffs throughout.
It is quite important to keep a nice balance here, or to try and beline specific technologies for your plan. To ensure good synergies, you are heavily rewarded from following an exact plan from the start, and for adapting to any changes while conducting it.
LORDS, SKILLS, ARMY COMPOSITION:
Blue line has replenishment rate and attrition right at the start, which is excellent. Given how Chaos Dwarfs have no issues with climate, it may appear too much. You also have an increase of battle loot and labourers per battle, which is quite thematic and helpful for the campaign.
The redline is quite good, granting good bonuses that complement the forces and correct most weaknesses, such as giving melee attack for most infantry. It it, however, quite expensive in terms of how many redline skills you would need if you are to field a lot of different unit types. You have both low and high quality troops of the same type in the same redline skill, which helps ensure you can use it early and benefit later from that choice.
Zhatan does not have any specific bonuses for anything, which implies he can field nearly anything. Thematically, War Machines and Artillery are his idea, so here are some combinations with those. Nothing wrong with a solid frontline and some missiles, or the same notion but with cavalry. We can also enjoy some flyers and an idea revolving around monstrous infantry and the dreadquakes to breach through the enemy lines.
Then we can have a few more possibilities, like a more Dwarf style with heavy infantry, missiles and artillery. Or instead of the artillery we add the mobility of the bull centaurs.
It is also important to note that the unit capacity system will incentive you to have some spare armies using those initial units, instead of only fully elite armies. Some options are required for those.
As always, you may also have sweeper armies, over here are some choices too. Chaos Dwarf Warriors with some single entities to support. Note that the Lamasu's ability combines well with the K'daai physical resistance by denying magical attacks, so move them together. You can also have a Hobgoblin army for fun.
There are nearly endless possibilities with the Chaos Dwarfs, as always, use whatever Lord and Hero combination you prefer. I always recommend at least one caster and one melee/support hero, but it is up to you to have fun with it.
FINAL NOTES:
Zhatan has a great starting position, and assaulting the Bastion yourself is always a nice premise. Build up your forces, take the Bastion, go into Cathay and turn all those trees into mines. Ah, paradise.
A bit of focus in War Machines and Artillery also helps to have a different experience with this faction, and I advise for you to embrace it at least thematically. That way, you always have something different to expect when playing as Zhatan.
Your army consists of:
1 - Strong holding infantry
2 - Great missiles and artillery
3 - Great cavalry
4 - Good monstrous infantry
5 - Great single entities and flyers
6 - Lacks some speed
7 - Requires time to build up
Replenishment is great, mainly because of the climate and how most lords have access to replenishment.
Time to turn all of Cathay into your laborers as Zhatan, the Black.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006803499
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