Immortal Realms is perhaps the biggest adjustment for the Warhammer Fantasy universe and in a game like Total War: Warhammer 3 Nevertheless. This ambitious project will certainly suffice warhammer fans and intimidate franchise newcomers because of its complexity and scope.
Needless to say, it’s not the friendliest introduction for newbies. There are a total of 86 playable factions (including sub-factions) in Immortal Empires in a campaign map so large that even franchise veterans will get giddy just looking at it. A few pointers, by the way, are needed in case things fall into chaos.
9 Don’t skip the Realms Of Chaos campaign
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Speaking of Chaos, franchise newcomers would do well not to play Immortal Empires until they’ve had a taste of the Total War and Warhammer Fantasy experience through the main campaign, the story of Realms of Chaos. It’s a more familiar environment, complete with tutorials and a story on track.
While Immortal Empires is just one huge sandbox where players can do whatever they want. Think of the main campaign as a comprehensive tutorial, allowing novice players to familiarize themselves with the mechanics and faction interactions.
8 Start with the simple factions
Even then, players will still want to be careful which factions they choose. Some factions are surrounded by enemies, while others are a bit too complicated for newcomers. To be on the safe side, beginners will want to start with these factions:
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Great Cathay
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High Elves (Tyrion)
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Vampire Counts (Helman Ghorst)
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Greenskins (Skarsnik)
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Lizard Men (Nakai The Wanderer)
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Skaven (Ikit Claw)
Others have mechanics that are a little too advanced for a smooth first faction or have too many enemies around them. If beginners want to avoid frustration and lost feeling, these factions will provide some figurative training wheels.
7 Do not overload/overload
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One of the first mistakes even veterans make in a Total War campaign is expanding too much and too fast. Having a large territory can be just as much an obligation as it is a success. That means players will have to defend a larger area and maybe wasting too much time playing a mole with invading armies.
This is an annoying affair as the enemy AI tends to abuse raids and fast marching poses, leading to some wasted turns chasing them. Therefore, painting the map with your own colors is best reserved for more experienced players.
6 Set choke points
If players need to expand quickly (either to secure provinces or gain more revenue), they should at least be strategic about it. Chokepoints are areas on the campaign map where only one entry or exit point. This way, players usually only need to anticipate threats in one direction.
The best examples are the mountains to the south of the Grand Cathay starting region. They only have mountain pass areas as passable trails. However, these regions initially belong to the Ogre Kingdoms, but that’s a good incentive to go to war with them as Grand Cathay.
5 Avoid war on multiple fronts
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Not only are players conservative about taking up territories, they also want to make sure they don’t step on too many toes. Being at war with too many factions means: multiple sources of threats and armies that surround one’s territory.
In real life, a country that starts wars on multiple fronts almost always loses (like Germany during WW2). The same logic applies here. Players may need to make a peace treaty with their current enemy or end a war before starting a new one. Otherwise, the armies will be stretched too thin.
4 Check out The Faction Politics
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politics in Total War: Warhammer 3 is easier and more accessible than ever before. Still, players should be aware of their allies’ requests. They may have entered into a non-aggression pact with a particular faction, just for their ally to ask players to join the aforementioned faction in the war.
Accepting that request means betraying the non-aggression pact, robbing the player reliability rating. Players will also want check a faction’s friends and enemies before declaring war on them as this could erode some alliances or further deteriorate relations with potential enemies. By simply clicking on the enemy icon, you can see who they are at war with or who they are allies with.
3 Auto-resolve is usually inaccurate
When it comes to combat, commanding the army and fighting manually is more rewarding and produces better results compared to clicking “auto-resolve”. Unfortunately this was a problem with previous Total War games, and it was transferred here.
The auto-solve AI is wildly inaccurate usually with predictions and can lead to more casualties than usual or some lopsided victories or defeats. So for battles that look similar or even some losing battles, players will be rewarded more by manually fighting the enemy.
2 Prioritize the Blue Skill branch for Lords
As for building lords and legendary lords, it’s best to ignore their combat skills and prioritize the blue skill tree first. It’s usually the bottom one, starting with “Route Marcher.” This skill tree or branch provides huge campaign map and logistical improvements. The key skills to grab in this industry are anything with:
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Complement of the victim
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Maintenance reduction
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Plus campaign movement
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Lightning strike
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Exhaustion Reduction
Those nodes ensure that the military stays in top shape as often as possible. Lightning Strike is incredibly crucial when fighting multiple enemy armies. After grabbing the important skills in the blue branch, players can focus on the spells and the combat skills or passives.
1 Focus on securing entire provinces
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If players want to avoid territory headaches such as rebellions and limited buildings, expanding to complete the provinces is a good mini-goal during wars. Fortunately, if you click on settlements, you will see what other settlements they need to become a whole province.
The benefits of securing an entire province are significant to the economy and work wonders for curbing insurgencies. For most factions, this methodical expansion method should be how players deal with their aggression against enemy factions. Save the mindless looting and burning for the angrier demon groups later. There’s plenty of time for that in Immortal Empires.
Total War: Warhammer 3 is available on PC.
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