Happy new Year folks - Hope you all had a nice Christmas. Link to video handout here: drive.google.com/file/d/11Aq3VOhtR782lKmNrdPcQmluod3pYe1m/view?usp=sharing
One thing you didn’t mention but is actually super important: Returning a province always gives you imperial authority, even if the game doesn’t tell you. There are often dilemmas where two elector counts dispute over a settlement and you can decide for them to keep or return it. The decision screen doesn’t say that you will gain authority from returning it, but you will still gain +1
Really wish the game told us this because this IS huge. Makes retuning the province easily the more desirable option pretty much 100% of the time (unless you really really need the approval of the guy holding the province, but that's almost never worth more than +1IE)
@@octogen1282 I always returned the settlements to make sure everyone was in their place. Averland takes the moot and no event to return it? Guess Averland's about to find out.
i believe the main part of this is that a lot of imperial authority is fluid as you lose one authority for empire provinces not being fully controlled by electors, but you gain one back if the province is fully controlled by empire factions. also returning capitals is the ultimate cheese sometimes as returning it gives 2 fealty and an imperial authority each time you return it, so when toddy loses middenhiem for the fifth time you can get more authority from giving it back to him.
@@fakeprophecy Exploit and cheese are mutually exclusive Cheese is using a mechanic in its intended way but it gives far more value than intended, i.e projectile dodging Exploit is using a mechanic not in its intended way gaining an unfair advantage i.e save scumming The AI can always see you have an army in ambush, but if not discovered, it will ignore it, working as intended, ergo, not an exploit. You can call anything that gives you an advantage "cheese" but then the word losses all it's meaning. i.e Doomstacking, traits stacking, healing single entities,
One time I won a defensive siege against 2,5 full stacks of Skaven that assaulted Helmgart. I don’t remember what tier Helmgart was at that point, but it was not higher than 4… maybe The map was the best empire siege map, the one with an elevation and flat terrain, outside the fort being a steep climb upwards to the gates. The plan was simple: use the single unit of mortars only when necessary, placed on the capture point of the elevated surface, put crossbowmen on the elevated surface too, use swordsmen to hold the towers until the Skaven put ladders then retreat to the defensive position, where the spearmen are going to hold the line, if a swordsman dies, it won’t be that bad, but I’d lose valuable frontline force. Last step of the plan: convince the rats to take the main road instead of the flanks, and use the single unit of cavalry to kill any unit of Skaven that tried to use the side paths. It went PERFECTLY. The mortars did not stop firing once on the blob of rats that had gathered on the tight ramp, as crossbowmen fire at will at literally fucking anything they can see. Rat men arrived very tired from climbing ladders and running all the way to here to try to avoid fire from towers and missiles, my men were fresh when swords clashed. Still, it was very close, my missiles ran out of ammo as the last horde of Skaven arrived at my beaten up frontline, and had to become part of it. The mortars kept firing. Cavalry was useful to convince fleeing Skaven to give up permanently, plus intercepting sneaky rats once or twice. I don’t remember what Skaven faction came from there, and yes it was mostly comprised of clan rats and Skaven slaves, with the odd gutterrunner, BUT IT FELT SO FUCKING COOL
If you build the 300 supply rampart on a barricade portion of your supply capture point, you can spam your crossbowmen onto and off of it to gain ammo.
For terrain, the optimum for you ISN'T a flat plain, actually. It's having the foot of a hill. You park your melee infantry right at the bottom of the slope and your flat-trajectory missile units (handgunners, cannons, volleyguns) behind, which allows them to fire over the heads of the melee line rather than requiring checkerboarding or similar to clear up their lines of fire. This also works on a reverse slope.
You are explaining exactly what he explained. He doesnt have to say every single way to apply it. Put your artillery on the high spot because it can see. The idea is just put the artillery where it can see. Stop nitpicking every little thing. Maybe go make your own channel and release "better" videos.
@@mherrj What I described was putting the artillery on the LOW spot. And no, I will continue to offer alternatives and good advice, no matter how mad that makes you.
The Empire is also one of the factions that greatly benefits from the ally recruitment system via outposts. I usually keep one of the minor dwarf factions around to get some of their melee units.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! "Borrow" a Dwarf army with a lvl 20 Engineers (immortal) in it, dis and him just before the army disaplears, and when he comes back hes yours to keep, and will buff tge ever living shit out of your artillery and ranged units 👀
@@jonathanenciso In WH3, if you are allied in good standing with a faction, you can request to borrow an army for a limited amount of time. If a high enough level hero were to die on the turn just before the army leave, the hero would return not under the Allies control, but yours instead! One of the best uses for this particular glitch for an Empire army is to get Dwarf engineers, as they massively buff Handgunners and IIRC also artillery. Its great.
@@MatteV2 bruh. I've been allied to the biggest drawf faction in my latest campaign. I knew I could hire their units but not a whole army 💀. What's the best way to get them killed on the turn before they leave? Is it just getting them into a battle?
Crushed that Ice Court campaign thanks to you, these guides are genuinely entertaining to watch even though I don’t plan on playing most of these factions-however I’m still picking up my jaw from the floor after seeing the steam tank division, and by coincidence I’ve just started an Empire campaign
I love how you put the meaning of the words for us. Such well done videos all together. Your narration is also fantastic. Keep them coming good Sir. I usually go like this: Turn 1 you attack Grunberg with Franz and occupy it. You recruit an additional lord in Altdorf. Turn 2 you force march max Franz into the woods near Ubersreik and put your second lord recruiting on the border of Ubersreik. Turn 3 you attack Ubersreik with the second lord with Franz supporting and occupy it. Then you have enough movement with Franz to occupy Eilhart and that way you take your province on turn 3.
Good one having second lord instantly is also what I do it just helps with getting more items, better recruit, better stealth strategies and easy winning against superior stacks with trash units. Even later I rarely field single Generals they are usually running around in a team with economically smart stacks instead of pricey doomstacks.
Saw this on Reddit and decided to give it a watch. Even as a veteran player, this taught me some new tricks, like the empire successionist ambush trick at the start.
if you need to use his corn on a lame faction like The Secessionists you really struggling in Life they aren't even a hiccup of a faction. taking walls is so easy against the AI
@@thegreatrainman2336Doesn't mean it isn't annoying or costly depending on the difficulty level. There's a difference in quality between winning a fight you could win and a fight you could've won easier.
The only problem with *not* taking Marienberg early is that if you don't, you risk Bretonnia getting around to it first. Granted, a short war with another nation of Order can be smoothed over eventually, but it does rather complicate getting Marienberg back.
that or Kemmler. Vlad might not be as much of an early danger if you avoid war with him, but Kemmler always ensures I need to fight some undead early on Also its actually possible to just confederate Marienberg via the normal mechanics. Karl doesn't start off with the best relationship to them but if things drag out too long being friendly to them can still pay off.
Ahhhh, in a world of vampires, goat people, spikey vikings and the literal demons that they worship, the "normal" people still find a reason to rebel and kill each other
Awesome vid with very good info. Just want to add to not forget to spread the runefang love around when you confederate. You don't have to keep them with their elector count. You can use them to buff up your heroes, especially when fighting enemies that require magical damage to bring down efficiently
One important correction: Do NOT return dead elector counts in their original capital. Keep the capital for yourself so that you can assign your own elector and unlock the bonuses. Instead, return the dead elector in a minor settlement, which will still give them enough income to field a full army, and they can assist you in defending the region.
I have yet to play a full Empire campaign in any WH (did 2 co-ops with a friend in WH 1 and WH 2 when they were released all the way back, for about 50 turns each) so this is genuinely very helpful and it explains the faction in its entirety so well. Ill keep it in mind whenever I get to that one legendary campaign for that coveted 100% completion for both 1 and 2. Suprisingly at least from my viewing of different ytbers the empire didnt go through serious changes throughout all the different itterations of its games. The melee infantry is just there to hold, ranged infantry is still extremely good, ok cav, except late game cav is phenomenal and helstorm rockets are still king. Also Franzer divisions, thats bloody brilliant Blake!
Good to see you again Herr General. The Empire is in a bit of a strange position. Jack of all trades master of none. But there are some real standouts. As you said demigryphs, Helstorms, I'd also add their magic in there, so much versatility. The empire was always going to be a contraversial one, because so many people main the empire. They'll all have their own niche strategies which make things work such as, halberdiers with the right tech, or imperial authority farming just to mention a few. I'll probably have to make an addendum to this video to cover off a lot of the comments. Glad you enjoyed the Franzer meme sir. Strength and honour, General.
I loved this video, it really showed me my past mistakes with this faction as I did immediately attack marienburg and about 20 turns after I destroyed them I caught myself thinking „was this a mistake?“ I’m glad I found this video as it just helped me to understand the mistake that I can’t be aggressively expanding like I do with Khorne or the chaos dwarfs. You definitely earned a sub hope your channel grows to your desired number ^^ much love from Hungary
For dealing with Vlad. I was playing as golden order so maybe that changes something, but for me Vlad's armies tended to be pretty good by the time I could afford multiple armies. Yes they'd have a lot of chaf, but they'd also often have multiple varghulf's or blood knights which can be massive pains in the ass to deal with. I think he got them from raise dead. Also vampiric flyers like fell bats and vargheists can decimate your ranged units which is definetly a reason to try to auto resolve
Love your content Mr. Blake! While I don't necessarily need most of the advice in your videos they are presented in such an entertaining way that I keep coming back, keep it up my man! 👍
I feel like most of the latter mistakes also applies to other factions. Using diplomacy in particular. Having another faction pay you to join a war against someone is a really good strategy, especially since their allies won't be compelled to join war against you immediatley. And all factions needs to make use of their heroes.
Absolutely they apply to different factions. But I often see folks saying they can't win as the empire and they haven't brought a wizard in their army, so I want to make sure that people are aware of how powerful imperial magic is.
One thing i have noticed is that greatswords have been performing a lot better since the last two patches. They still won't hold very long, but I sent the ones that come with Karl into festus nurgle great axe chaos warriors and they routed them with about a quarter of their own health and about half their unit models left.
I rock with the Empire....... on the battlefield. They just have so many fires to put out on the campaign map. My best battlefield faction is Slaanesh or Bretonia. Anything highly mobile so I do like the Empire roster their Knights are worthy sons of sigmar.
@@urahi830 Yeah. Removing the penalty (at least for first 50 turns or something) from the civil war would legit save the Empire campaign. You can deal with all the threats fine as they are. Empire needs enemies, otherwise they become the largest faction every time. (100+ turns in they already always are in top5 as AI) You just cant deal with all the threats killing your fellow Electors in the first 30ish turns...
First time watching your content, and I am very impressed. And the Steel Faith and Gunpowder line was cold AF. Now I can't wait for a Dark elf one, I love the aesthetic, but I suck so badly with them.
The Irrepreasible skill gives only 30% to your lord. Still useful, especially if you use him as a tank, but not broken like the skill might make you think by saying "your lord army". Apparently, CA thought necessary to precise that your lord only gets its replenishment if he's in his own army....
this, though the wound time reduction is OK (lmao simply don't die) really though it's a bottleneck skill you have to take it to get to the juicy 2nd half so no reason not to.
Some of the most fun I’ve had with the empire is trying to do a melee focused army. Longswords combined with elector count swords and warrior priests to buff stats and for a bit you get get units with 100+ melee defence and attack lol
Greatsword frontlines are somewhat viable especially at hacking through enemy chaff and mid tier infantry. Unfortunately their anti infantry bonus will only carry them so far and will struggle to kill chaos warriors, marauder champions, Black orcs, and high dps skaven infantry before their low leadership fails them
@@BlakesTakes420I’ve got it running late game in my campaign so I can give all my heroes in that army runefangs and good items for buffing, probably couldn’t have more then one but it’s pretty funny seeing great swords or swordsmen bully chosen
amazing video, just one thing at 19:40 we disagree heavily I have always 4 reiksguard per army, they are often the units with it I get the *most* value with, specially before the hellstorms. but even then they usually get a higher value than recruiting them costs every battle it's mostly a game of luring one or two units and then doing the hammer and hammer technique(bait a formation with one unit by pretending to charge, charge them on the back with the other unit, then charge them on the back a second time)... they fall off hard because of no AP, but on Karls army the Anti large makes up to keep them relevant sure, it is a unit that you gotta pay more attention than usual because they suck if you're not taking good engagements. edit: but getting them to take good engagements is very easy if you're paying attention that said, I dont think the reiksfort building is worth it in empire lands. Only the special one in altdorf
Thank you. Yeah Reiksgurd aren't terrible to be fair, probably a bit harsh on them in my handout. Still, the awkward building and the cost of them is just too prohibitive for me to place them in my armies. May do some testing and a follow up to this video. Watch this space.
Hi Blake, just some feedback on the video. I feel like the repetition is very bad for the overall quality of the video, if I need to go back I can, and it bloats the video unnecessarily. I like the humour, audio is good too.
The true way to play the empire is to play volkmar and only use flagellants, warrior priest, arch lector, knights of the blazing sun and a max of 1 or 2 artillery :)
Great content! Something about the Empire really makes me push for better and better wins. I've won a Legendary/VH hard long campaign (250+ provinces) in 120 turns and im still finding useful information out from videos like this! The argument for Halberds is based around which faction you'll find yourself going up against. The diverse roster of the empire affords the faction the luxury of building armies specific to the foes you'll be dealing with. Sure, spears and shields are cheaper and are generally better against factions with missile based damage (elves, dawi, kislev) but if I need to go up against Ogres or Bretonnians, Im picking Halberds every time. As for taking Helmgart, you should be table to do it by turn 4 in addition to taking Eilhart: Turn 1 I take Grunberg and recruit a Huntsman General, recruiting two archers into the new lord army. Turn 2 I march Franz and the Huntsman General towards Ubersreik, while recruiting a third Huntsman General. Turn 3 Franz can solo take Eilhart while the 2 Huntsman Generals and their handful of archer units can dispatch Ubersreik - its a bitch cheesy with kiting the Huntsman Generals, but the two of them can easily take down half the opposing force before getting your archers involved. Keep them hidden and prepared to position to mop up the remaining units. End turn by recruiting a Warrior Priest. You can use these three lords to ambush the Secessionists stationed in Helmgart as theyll severely underestimate your balance of power. Again with a healthy dosage of kiting you can win with just these 3 lords and handful of archers On Turn 4 you can mop up Helmgart with Franz and these 3 lords. Subsequently camp out around Eilhart and Kazrak should walk straight into your forces in ambush and wipe himself out on Turn 5.
In TWW 2, I beat a Chaos 4 stacks with Empire army with Settlement garrison because when my outriders ammo ran dry, the winds of magic is exhausted, but FAITH remains.
I do love this video series. It inspired me to try Skragg, and I had a good time with that campaign. And oddly, while I despise playing Empire, your video does push me to possibly play them again. I don't despise Empire because I'm unsuccessful with them, but because I just don't enjoy it. I don't like the available infantry, the early to midgame ranged is abysmal imo, I don't like managing Elector Counts. Admittedly, I last played Karl in the 2nd game, for achievements; and have only played Volkmar in WH3. So if the Elector Count system is better than previous iterations, I'd be willing to try again.
By the way, you can only recruit shielded spearmen from a t2 barracks, those basic ones dont get shields. Also you can drag the re-enforcement angle around so that bad angles done happen, but it extends how long it takes for allies to arrive!
I still watch these videos as someone who plays exclusively on Legendary/Very Hard, I guess hoping that there is some sneaky trick I have yet to learn. Sad reality is is... the only strat left is to "get gud". To ALL the gamers out there, I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.
There’s actually some fun strats for the empire, I recommend you to take nuln by force after the secessionist. It will give you a great economic base, an Autowin elector count unit in the steam tank and nuln hates your guts anyways you would take ages to confed them peacefully That nets you a -7 authority, but who cares you’re just gonna clap vlad next by slowly camping through his vampire territories and then trapping him before sieging castle drakenhof Once you wiped him (don’t take out the weak vamps first because they will actually distract him in a helpful way) your economic base is so solid you can afford 2 1/2 stacks now you can decide to either try to play good empire man and not go to civil war (which is weak because it takes forever) or you confed a strategically important ally (Balthasar) and drop down to -10 to have a jolly old civil war against a bunch of weakling empire factions Averland you overrun first to connect your territory, stir land will be fighting back because they have no enemy, talabecland and Hochland will usually be taken out or decapitated at the least by festus (by the way squeez Hochland for money early on because they die quickly but don’t make any treaties with other empire factions you don’t 100% want to confed, they will at some point force you to break treaties which is terrible) midden land is in shambles because of festus and khazrak. Marienburg doesn’t care but has most likely been decimated by either kemmler or louen, nordland is getting rekt by norscans, ostland (?) is being rekt by drycha and the last dude up north is really too far away to be doing much Voila you just gobble everything up and make sure to get NO authority because now you want to stay at -10 (-10 is actually good because it’s neutral in terms of bonus malus) Best elector count units are tbh the Hochland long rifles … such insane missile troops After you have united the empire you are literally steamrolling everything else unless you managed to get your ass into too many other wars due to bad diplomacy (appease the dwarfs and kislev man …)
One tip for dealing with Vlad: 1 unit of basic outriders can kill him 100 to 0 with all their ammo and good kiting. Very helpful for Balthasar Gelt who starts with a unit of outriders. Getting him to chase after them can be a bit of a hassle and you have to make sure all their dog/knight units are dead but it's a pretty clean way to kill him.
3:10 you could also have your second lord constantly siege and run away here. That way u can finish the reikland province, and helmgart wont be a bother until youre ready to take it.
Feels good to hear i'm doing, at least, some things right. For the rest i can say i learned much from your videos. Please keep up the good work, and maaaaaybe you can do a take on the true emporer Vlad von Carstein. Just to see the other Side of things.
One random guy definitely not playing the bait for Karl Franz army: “Hey! Hey look! I am stealing 3 bugs from you… I also cut in front of your grandma during her grocery shopping!”
I hope you do this for all factions; As someone who plays FPS's/MOBA's and other sorts these videos are great plus the way you present everything in these types of videos are S-Tier for me
Now with Nuln Ironsides you can use replace your frontline with them and have a solid front that can shoot at the enemy until they reach you (if this even happens). Cannons can become cheap infantry killer with their grapeshot upgrade as Nuln.
Free Company Militia can be a good supplement for shielded spearmen as you get into the mid game, as whilst theit melee defense is a good deal lower, having 1 or 2 units to help with peppering down enemies that get close wuen you don't have the funds for more artillery or higher tier dedicated missile units can certainly be useful, although a niche function
FCM's are an excellent early game 'chaser' unit because they can fire while moving. I use them on flanks in low tier armies, to fend off enemy fast attack. They can shoot/tangle with wolves decently enough, and if the enemy has it's cavalry stuck in FCM it's not killing your much more valuable dedicated ranged troops. They can also chase routing enemy infantry with shoot on the move, and fight them if they regroup and turn around. And, of course, Volkmar turns them into goddamn royal marines
If you must explain how to use Empire units so thoroughly, it means they're worse than anything else in the game :/ I can play with almost every faction in WH3... apart from Empire and Skaven :) while me struggling with Skaven is entirely on me... I now see that me struggling with Empire is on the game itself xD great video ;) love this series so far :)
I kind of view the empire as pink armoured skaven, so it's fascinating to me that those are both the factions you struggle with. Hopefully the video can give you a steer on it!
A word about Huntsman Generals: They make for excellent lords of a secondary army, as they buff the hell out of your ranged units, giving them purpose in the lategame. By the way, are you planning on doing a video about Wulfheart?
Legendary difficulty, very hard combat, I find going straight for Marionburg makes the Empire campaign even more challenging and thus more fun. This is what happens when you've beaten the Empire campaign 5+ times
@@BlakesTakes420 Yay~ Azazel is my favorite, but there's not a ton of guides or current campaigns on him from what I've seen. So that'd be dope as hell.
Entertaining and informative video. I have had epic battles with a level 20+ Vlad, I would advise to not auto resolve - get better at the battle game. I normally get issues as time moves on and potential allies start to fall. The Dwarves fall to the Orcs/Skaven - The Bretonians fall to the Orcs/vampires - the North gets attacked by chaos and Norsca and the Elves fall to the dark Elves. Like the Roman Empire I still can smash anyone BUT the edges start to fray..... Greatswords are decent and I quite like lobbing mortars.
Halberdiers outstrip Shielded spearmen but only late game after you got the technology that gives Halberdiers charge defense vs all, and ONLY vs certain factions (Vampires, Chaos, Norsca) because they lack ranged options and rely heavily on armor and/or large monsters. For everyone else the benefits of shields are just too great. I usually take at max 5 frontline troops, I find this is a good magic number for coverage. It also, conveniently, lets me create a gunline with 4 gaps I can stick ranged troops into. Learn gunlines! There's an infographic out there from way back in TWW1 that explains how they work. Elevation and terrain is extremely important and non-flat terrain can completely inhibit your guns ability to shoot, so it pays to zoom all the way down to ground level and get a mans eye view of the terrain so you can see *exactly* what is in front of your troops when positioning your army. In terms of redline skills I don't skip empires finest because of the MD buff it gives to basically all of your troops. Early game when you rely on them moreso than heroes and steam tanks, the good chunky bonus to stats you get is very useful. Huntsman General aren't good but they're good garrison stick lords which are more justifiable these days with multiplicative upkeep being taken out. They give buffs to very cheap core units - spearmen and archers (and greatswords for some reason but why would you ever take greatswords not even franz takes greatswords lmao). They also give buffs to nearby ranged troops with their aura, and their unique skills are available from level 1. This makes them good later on when you can recruit lords at higher levels from go, and all you need is someone with a quarter to half stack to garrison an at risk settlement or province. In general, Arch-Lectors are your best lords and it's not even close - empire generals can get griffons that let them attack the back line or important targets but only at high levels, and their prayers offer huge benefit to troops nearby. Likewise Warrior Priests vs Captains - though captains are a little easier to stomach since you get pegasi much sooner and the training skill has been overhauled to be multiplicative rather than a flat trickle. Sure would be nice if they got Demigriff mounts like they're supposed to, because yes that is a thing on the tabletop.
A good read. I never invest technology into melee infantry because of their poor damage output. I view empire melee infantry as slightly armoured skaven.
For people struggling with empire, dont feel too bad. The empire is in need of an update as they are currently a victim of power creep, with so many enemies to fight who will roll over the other elector counts with ease. Their units will struggle to perform compared to their counterparts unless buffed by heroes. Karl is a good duellist and support lord but has low melee defense to tank with and has less hp than a kislev hag witch. Imperial armies are also a little too expensive for how mediocre they are and youll find you can really only afford one good army to defend reikland province, forcing you to constantly pivot to new threats as they appear. In my campaign i had to systematically deal with kemmler, festus, kazrak and vlad. Later on i had appearances from wurzag, wulfrik, belakor, azazel, archaeon, ikit claw, who wiped out the wood elves and sent multiple large stacks of high tier troops and nukes. I only managed to finally push him out of athel Loren with help from louen and belegar. In summary, it is pain in the best way and the most fun campaign ive had
Solid in-depth video. You missed the 2 important ones. 1. You don't use your prestige early to get a confederation turn 6 - 8 with a strong army. 2. You don't use additional lords early to xp leech to lead future armies while upkeep is low.
I just finally reclaimed the entirety of the Empires lands and confederated all factions on very hard/very hard, turn 92. Man, what a nightmare Sylvania turned out to be. Like in this video I ignored them initially to go north and deal with the threats there, but before long they had carved a huge swathe westwards and taken out half of the other elector counts. Before I had even finished beating back Festus, they declared war on me. The only thing that saved me was - get this - my trade and good relations with Orion, which let me sign a defensive treaty with him. As if on The Last March of the Ents, those beautiful tree bois started knocking out huge vampire doomstacks, pushing deep into the east and giving me breathing space. I even gifted him a province just to help him defend me. Meanwhile Ahzag had conquered the entire eastern mountains and knocked out all the dwarfs, right down to the south aswell, and he declared war on me. Every empire and dwarven faction near me had been crushed by their enemies, I considered this campaign lost - but I was going to fight it to the last. I desperately sued for peace with Syvania after destroying 5 of their armies with some autoresolve lightning strike nonsense. Then I focused my entire economy on grinding back the Greenskins, which was a bloody 30 turn campaign, ending at the gates of fallen Karaz-a-Karak, before they finally asked for peace. With that resolved, the cancer in the center of my Empire that was Sylvania was ready to be purged. While keeping barely enough defenses on my southern border to beat back constant Ogre attacks, I mustered 6 armies bristling with artillery around Sylvania, declared war, and with great relish, crushed them in a pincer move. Glory to the Empire.
One small preference for me is to place my single entities about 3/4 of the way through my ranged units... range. If you put them at the absolute maximum, it makes your ranged units very inaccurate, providing less value per shot.
The Empire can recruit so many melee heroes I don't even know why people bother with other units. You can get entire stacks full of captains and warrior priests. Who cares they're not the strongest? By the time the Dwarfs get 1 Thane you can get like 5 captains and at least 2 priests.
my english is not the best... but in my opinion, this is the best summary or guide to understand empire. i think i get the point. and now.... new game and try. love it!
This is a great guide. In my most recent play through i did most of this, but wasted too much time not confederating when i could have. I thought it would be helpful to have another ai fielded army more than i needed the land. At some point that impeded my progress. Still, I also wish I could actually peacefully get nuln atleast one time lol
37:05 I myself liked using that strategy as Clan Mors in order to better focus my armies into one enemy at a time. In particular, since the Empire did not like me and my expansion in the world edge mountains or the border princes and since I myself had a personal grudge towards Chaos factions for the end times I found the perfect ally in Vlad Von Carstein, taking and selling to him Empire territory and acting as my shield against the many Chaos factions in the north. Basically changing Warhammer history by replacing Men and Dwarves with Undead and Skaven valiantly standing against the forces of Chaos. (And with an extra war in the east where Skaven and Ogres also fight Chaos Dwarves.) Sure my troops are in danger of attrition in his territory but so is the enemy and unlike me, they cannot bypass it via the underway.
This is basically just a video that Albrecht Von Wallenstein would make about tactics in the 30 years war. "The age of knights and halberds is over, just use guns and spears"
Played a campaign after watching this video and damn I have no idea how people deal the very, very early game fights without either DLC for missle damage.
I recommend not confederating any Elector counts apart from Gelt, until you hit a high number of Imperial Authority (20+). Because if you don't confederate you will gain a lot more passive Authority (by declining the confederating)..
One point to add to the diplomacy: When you want to attack an Faction which has a allience, look with what factions they are allready at war with and Join this factions war with your target. With this their alliened factions are not at war with you
I love your content. I actually just picked up Warhammer 3 because I watched a lot of Grim Kleaper's Vids and I got totally overwhelmed by it. (Probally starting my first campaign with Bretonia bc they looked cool wasn't so smart) I learned a lot in your vids like recruting a second commander or using heroes in my armies :D I'm rly happy to have found you because otherwise I would've just dumped this gem of a game after a while.... thx for the great content and shared knowledge (P.s. Greenskins especially Orcs made my first long campaign victory a utter blast)
When you hear"Faith, Steel and Gunpowder" you would expect different units to fill each role, what they really meant are Grenade Outriders. Its a good thing we are fighting monsters because these things would absolutely be a war crime.
I love how the Empire is pushed on you like an easy starter faction, when in reality, it's a high skill faction. I started my first playthrough back during Warhammer 2 with the Empire and hated it. I dropped the game entirely. Eventually, I hopped back on and started a playthrough as Norsca. This time, I conquered the entire map, lol.
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I play a lot of factions, but turns out most of them have good or great infantry as I've come to realise after giving the empire a try after the 5.0 patch. I had to look up if you have a guide and what do you know! A very helpful video even with the new additions and after the changes! Thanks!
Happy new Year folks - Hope you all had a nice Christmas.
Link to video handout here:
drive.google.com/file/d/11Aq3VOhtR782lKmNrdPcQmluod3pYe1m/view?usp=sharing
Of course we expect a new guide once the empire rework is out :)
@@francesco.virzi4 of course sir.
Is this a mod or something? Why is Karl franz like a giant on his gryphon mount?
@@robosoldier11 no mods, just camera angle causing perspective I'd say.
Thank you, happy new year to you too!
One thing you didn’t mention but is actually super important: Returning a province always gives you imperial authority, even if the game doesn’t tell you. There are often dilemmas where two elector counts dispute over a settlement and you can decide for them to keep or return it. The decision screen doesn’t say that you will gain authority from returning it, but you will still gain +1
You're goddamn right.
Really wish the game told us this because this IS huge. Makes retuning the province easily the more desirable option pretty much 100% of the time (unless you really really need the approval of the guy holding the province, but that's almost never worth more than +1IE)
@@octogen1282 I always returned the settlements to make sure everyone was in their place. Averland takes the moot and no event to return it? Guess Averland's about to find out.
@@deskslam4232 Poor Marius probably just forgot he doesn't have any halfling subjects, lol
i believe the main part of this is that a lot of imperial authority is fluid as you lose one authority for empire provinces not being fully controlled by electors, but you gain one back if the province is fully controlled by empire factions. also returning capitals is the ultimate cheese sometimes as returning it gives 2 fealty and an imperial authority each time you return it, so when toddy loses middenhiem for the fifth time you can get more authority from giving it back to him.
Hey! I don't suck with the Empire! I just fail to win as the Empire!
You just prefer lore accurate playthroughs, that's fine!!
do you want an end times? because this is how you get an end times.
@@BlakesTakes420 I can't get the End Times because there is no End Times crisis for late game.
Bro thinks he's General George McLellan
@@GamerGrovyle based, square based.
2:14 you can see Blake panic as he fears he might have girlbossed too deep into the enemy territory with the raiding lord and may not get an ambush
THAT WAS CONFIDENTIAL!
How in all the years of playing total war have I not done that tactic. Always just brute forcing my way through or chasing 🤦
Ambush exploit cheese... so inovative... you can just set the game to easy too.
@@fakeprophecy a brave attempt at spelling innovative friend.
@@fakeprophecy
Exploit and cheese are mutually exclusive
Cheese is using a mechanic in its intended way but it gives far more value than intended, i.e projectile dodging
Exploit is using a mechanic not in its intended way gaining an unfair advantage i.e save scumming
The AI can always see you have an army in ambush, but if not discovered, it will ignore it, working as intended, ergo, not an exploit.
You can call anything that gives you an advantage "cheese" but then the word losses all it's meaning. i.e
Doomstacking, traits stacking, healing single entities,
One time I won a defensive siege against 2,5 full stacks of Skaven that assaulted Helmgart. I don’t remember what tier Helmgart was at that point, but it was not higher than 4… maybe
The map was the best empire siege map, the one with an elevation and flat terrain, outside the fort being a steep climb upwards to the gates.
The plan was simple: use the single unit of mortars only when necessary, placed on the capture point of the elevated surface, put crossbowmen on the elevated surface too, use swordsmen to hold the towers until the Skaven put ladders then retreat to the defensive position, where the spearmen are going to hold the line, if a swordsman dies, it won’t be that bad, but I’d lose valuable frontline force.
Last step of the plan: convince the rats to take the main road instead of the flanks, and use the single unit of cavalry to kill any unit of Skaven that tried to use the side paths.
It went PERFECTLY. The mortars did not stop firing once on the blob of rats that had gathered on the tight ramp, as crossbowmen fire at will at literally fucking anything they can see. Rat men arrived very tired from climbing ladders and running all the way to here to try to avoid fire from towers and missiles, my men were fresh when swords clashed. Still, it was very close, my missiles ran out of ammo as the last horde of Skaven arrived at my beaten up frontline, and had to become part of it. The mortars kept firing. Cavalry was useful to convince fleeing Skaven to give up permanently, plus intercepting sneaky rats once or twice.
I don’t remember what Skaven faction came from there, and yes it was mostly comprised of clan rats and Skaven slaves, with the odd gutterrunner, BUT IT FELT SO FUCKING COOL
The Fortress battles are very satisfying. I wish they had made the settlement layouts more like that in Warhammer 3.
Lore accurate skaven wouldve just dug under the wall
If you build the 300 supply rampart on a barricade portion of your supply capture point, you can spam your crossbowmen onto and off of it to gain ammo.
The "Faith, Steel, Gunpowder" flowchart is amazing, I love it. When I attempt an Empire run I'll try to remember this video, thank you.
Thank you friend, I hope it helps!
I love the ending comment "You will be summoning the elector counts in no time" 10/10, instant fan after my first video on this channel
Welcome aboard friend.
I do this with everyone I try to confederate with no matter the race. It seems to work well
For terrain, the optimum for you ISN'T a flat plain, actually. It's having the foot of a hill. You park your melee infantry right at the bottom of the slope and your flat-trajectory missile units (handgunners, cannons, volleyguns) behind, which allows them to fire over the heads of the melee line rather than requiring checkerboarding or similar to clear up their lines of fire. This also works on a reverse slope.
Correct, I should have put a section in clarifying that
@@BlakesTakes420 you missed alot in this video lol just remake the video
You are explaining exactly what he explained. He doesnt have to say every single way to apply it. Put your artillery on the high spot because it can see. The idea is just put the artillery where it can see. Stop nitpicking every little thing. Maybe go make your own channel and release "better" videos.
@@mherrj What I described was putting the artillery on the LOW spot. And no, I will continue to offer alternatives and good advice, no matter how mad that makes you.
Loved the alliteration with V's bit. That was mint!
Glad you enjoyed it friend.
Verily.
The Empire is also one of the factions that greatly benefits from the ally recruitment system via outposts. I usually keep one of the minor dwarf factions around to get some of their melee units.
It sure does, dwarf infantry and Brettonia cav are great additions
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! "Borrow" a Dwarf army with a lvl 20 Engineers (immortal) in it, dis and him just before the army disaplears, and when he comes back hes yours to keep, and will buff tge ever living shit out of your artillery and ranged units 👀
Wait what. Can you explain a bit better lol@@MatteV2
@@jonathanenciso In WH3, if you are allied in good standing with a faction, you can request to borrow an army for a limited amount of time. If a high enough level hero were to die on the turn just before the army leave, the hero would return not under the Allies control, but yours instead!
One of the best uses for this particular glitch for an Empire army is to get Dwarf engineers, as they massively buff Handgunners and IIRC also artillery. Its great.
@@MatteV2 bruh. I've been allied to the biggest drawf faction in my latest campaign. I knew I could hire their units but not a whole army 💀. What's the best way to get them killed on the turn before they leave? Is it just getting them into a battle?
Crushed that Ice Court campaign thanks to you, these guides are genuinely entertaining to watch even though I don’t plan on playing most of these factions-however I’m still picking up my jaw from the floor after seeing the steam tank division, and by coincidence I’ve just started an Empire campaign
Thank you so much, let me know how your new campaign goes!
I love how you put the meaning of the words for us. Such well done videos all together. Your narration is also fantastic. Keep them coming good Sir.
I usually go like this:
Turn 1 you attack Grunberg with Franz and occupy it. You recruit an additional lord in Altdorf.
Turn 2 you force march max Franz into the woods near Ubersreik and put your second lord recruiting on the border of Ubersreik.
Turn 3 you attack Ubersreik with the second lord with Franz supporting and occupy it. Then you have enough movement with Franz to occupy Eilhart and that way you take your province on turn 3.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it.
That's a spicy strat I'll have to try it.
Good one having second lord instantly is also what I do it just helps with getting more items, better recruit, better stealth strategies and easy winning against superior stacks with trash units.
Even later I rarely field single Generals they are usually running around in a team with economically smart stacks instead of pricey doomstacks.
Saw this on Reddit and decided to give it a watch. Even as a veteran player, this taught me some new tricks, like the empire successionist ambush trick at the start.
Love to hear it sir!
if you need to use his corn on a lame faction like The Secessionists you really struggling in Life they aren't even a hiccup of a faction. taking walls is so easy against the AI
thats an old old trick... you cant be a veteran if you didnt even know this! thats basic play
@@thegreatrainman2336Doesn't mean it isn't annoying or costly depending on the difficulty level.
There's a difference in quality between winning a fight you could win and a fight you could've won easier.
@@GamerGrovyle No one should be struggling against this faction unless you have minimal hours put in they are so easy to beat.
The only problem with *not* taking Marienberg early is that if you don't, you risk Bretonnia getting around to it first. Granted, a short war with another nation of Order can be smoothed over eventually, but it does rather complicate getting Marienberg back.
Yeah, if Brettonia take Marienburg I declare war, simple as that.
that or Kemmler. Vlad might not be as much of an early danger if you avoid war with him, but Kemmler always ensures I need to fight some undead early on
Also its actually possible to just confederate Marienberg via the normal mechanics. Karl doesn't start off with the best relationship to them but if things drag out too long being friendly to them can still pay off.
Ahhhh, in a world of vampires, goat people, spikey vikings and the literal demons that they worship, the "normal" people still find a reason to rebel and kill each other
Awesome vid with very good info. Just want to add to not forget to spread the runefang love around when you confederate. You don't have to keep them with their elector count. You can use them to buff up your heroes, especially when fighting enemies that require magical damage to bring down efficiently
Absolutely, the Runefangs are excellent and I should've mentioned them.
One important correction: Do NOT return dead elector counts in their original capital. Keep the capital for yourself so that you can assign your own elector and unlock the bonuses. Instead, return the dead elector in a minor settlement, which will still give them enough income to field a full army, and they can assist you in defending the region.
You see I just return all their land to speedrun fealty and confederation. You raise a good point though.
I have yet to play a full Empire campaign in any WH (did 2 co-ops with a friend in WH 1 and WH 2 when they were released all the way back, for about 50 turns each) so this is genuinely very helpful and it explains the faction in its entirety so well. Ill keep it in mind whenever I get to that one legendary campaign for that coveted 100% completion for both 1 and 2. Suprisingly at least from my viewing of different ytbers the empire didnt go through serious changes throughout all the different itterations of its games. The melee infantry is just there to hold, ranged infantry is still extremely good, ok cav, except late game cav is phenomenal and helstorm rockets are still king.
Also Franzer divisions, thats bloody brilliant Blake!
Good to see you again Herr General.
The Empire is in a bit of a strange position. Jack of all trades master of none. But there are some real standouts. As you said demigryphs, Helstorms, I'd also add their magic in there, so much versatility.
The empire was always going to be a contraversial one, because so many people main the empire. They'll all have their own niche strategies which make things work such as, halberdiers with the right tech, or imperial authority farming just to mention a few.
I'll probably have to make an addendum to this video to cover off a lot of the comments.
Glad you enjoyed the Franzer meme sir. Strength and honour, General.
I loved this video, it really showed me my past mistakes with this faction as I did immediately attack marienburg and about 20 turns after I destroyed them I caught myself thinking „was this a mistake?“ I’m glad I found this video as it just helped me to understand the mistake that I can’t be aggressively expanding like I do with Khorne or the chaos dwarfs. You definitely earned a sub hope your channel grows to your desired number ^^ much love from Hungary
Thank you sir, glad to be of service. 🫶🇭🇺
For dealing with Vlad. I was playing as golden order so maybe that changes something, but for me Vlad's armies tended to be pretty good by the time I could afford multiple armies. Yes they'd have a lot of chaf, but they'd also often have multiple varghulf's or blood knights which can be massive pains in the ass to deal with. I think he got them from raise dead. Also vampiric flyers like fell bats and vargheists can decimate your ranged units which is definetly a reason to try to auto resolve
Love your content Mr. Blake! While I don't necessarily need most of the advice in your videos they are presented in such an entertaining way that I keep coming back, keep it up my man! 👍
Glad you enjoy it sir, thank you for your viewership!
Reikland getting the spotlight this time, wunderbar! This was my favorite campaign in WH2, so I was extra happy to see this getting a blake-take
Happy to be of service sir. 🫶
I feel like most of the latter mistakes also applies to other factions. Using diplomacy in particular. Having another faction pay you to join a war against someone is a really good strategy, especially since their allies won't be compelled to join war against you immediatley. And all factions needs to make use of their heroes.
Absolutely they apply to different factions. But I often see folks saying they can't win as the empire and they haven't brought a wizard in their army, so I want to make sure that people are aware of how powerful imperial magic is.
@@BlakesTakes420 yeah, I did that mistake playing a Drycha campaign. I completely ignored brancwraiths, which was unwise.
One thing i have noticed is that greatswords have been performing a lot better since the last two patches. They still won't hold very long, but I sent the ones that come with Karl into festus nurgle great axe chaos warriors and they routed them with about a quarter of their own health and about half their unit models left.
They definitely do perform better, but still not good enough to rely on.
Fuck yes! 47 minutes of pure Blake content. Can there be a better weekend gift?
Cheers as always mate! 👊
You're most welcome sir. Thank you for your continued viewership hun 🫶
I rock with the Empire....... on the battlefield. They just have so many fires to put out on the campaign map. My best battlefield faction is Slaanesh or Bretonia. Anything highly mobile so I do like the Empire roster their Knights are worthy sons of sigmar.
the empire starts crumbling on turn 3, it's just not enjoyable in this state, it feels like an endgame crisis from the get-go
@@urahi830 Yeah. Removing the penalty (at least for first 50 turns or something) from the civil war would legit save the Empire campaign. You can deal with all the threats fine as they are. Empire needs enemies, otherwise they become the largest faction every time. (100+ turns in they already always are in top5 as AI)
You just cant deal with all the threats killing your fellow Electors in the first 30ish turns...
@redluke you rock at everything sir.
First time watching your content, and I am very impressed. And the Steel Faith and Gunpowder line was cold AF. Now I can't wait for a Dark elf one, I love the aesthetic, but I suck so badly with them.
Thank you sir, hopefully I'll get to the emo elves soon.
The Irrepreasible skill gives only 30% to your lord. Still useful, especially if you use him as a tank, but not broken like the skill might make you think by saying "your lord army". Apparently, CA thought necessary to precise that your lord only gets its replenishment if he's in his own army....
this, though the wound time reduction is OK (lmao simply don't die) really though it's a bottleneck skill you have to take it to get to the juicy 2nd half so no reason not to.
@@TsunamiWombat Yeah never said not to take it just don't have hope that it will double your replenishment rate XD
Some of the most fun I’ve had with the empire is trying to do a melee focused army. Longswords combined with elector count swords and warrior priests to buff stats and for a bit you get get units with 100+ melee defence and attack lol
It's a strategy I haven't had the pleasure / courage to try
Greatsword frontlines are somewhat viable especially at hacking through enemy chaff and mid tier infantry. Unfortunately their anti infantry bonus will only carry them so far and will struggle to kill chaos warriors, marauder champions, Black orcs, and high dps skaven infantry before their low leadership fails them
@@BlakesTakes420I’ve got it running late game in my campaign so I can give all my heroes in that army runefangs and good items for buffing, probably couldn’t have more then one but it’s pretty funny seeing great swords or swordsmen bully chosen
amazing video, just one thing at 19:40 we disagree heavily
I have always 4 reiksguard per army, they are often the units with it I get the *most* value with, specially before the hellstorms. but even then they usually get a higher value than recruiting them costs every battle
it's mostly a game of luring one or two units and then doing the hammer and hammer technique(bait a formation with one unit by pretending to charge, charge them on the back with the other unit, then charge them on the back a second time)... they fall off hard because of no AP, but on Karls army the Anti large makes up to keep them relevant
sure, it is a unit that you gotta pay more attention than usual because they suck if you're not taking good engagements.
edit: but getting them to take good engagements is very easy if you're paying attention
that said, I dont think the reiksfort building is worth it in empire lands. Only the special one in altdorf
Thank you.
Yeah Reiksgurd aren't terrible to be fair, probably a bit harsh on them in my handout. Still, the awkward building and the cost of them is just too prohibitive for me to place them in my armies.
May do some testing and a follow up to this video. Watch this space.
Empire also just needs a dire DLC to bring them up to par with other races. They are still using dinky units from WH1
They certainly do.
Rejoice. DLC is here
Yeah but its entirely ranged based. Its a shame the melee still sucks dick. @patricklisso4357
Lol, dlc? The game should be balanced for free.
As some who has never played Total War: Warhammer III, this is incredibly insightful.
Thank you!
Hi Blake, just some feedback on the video.
I feel like the repetition is very bad for the overall quality of the video, if I need to go back I can, and it bloats the video unnecessarily.
I like the humour, audio is good too.
Thanks for the honest feedback.
A very clear and concise guide that doesn't say to do the ONE thing. Nice work
Thank you pal
I love these videos!
17:40 this part alone, everything is correct too, I'm impressed!
Dankeschön ❤
@@BlakesTakes420 gerne!
The true way to play the empire is to play volkmar and only use flagellants, warrior priest, arch lector, knights of the blazing sun and a max of 1 or 2 artillery :)
Bah! My 12 hell storm rocket batteries know your zip code.
-Gelt Gang
not often I like a video before finishing it, but just for the 05:35 part you deserve it.
Thank you sir! 🫶
Great content! Something about the Empire really makes me push for better and better wins. I've won a Legendary/VH hard long campaign (250+ provinces) in 120 turns and im still finding useful information out from videos like this!
The argument for Halberds is based around which faction you'll find yourself going up against. The diverse roster of the empire affords the faction the luxury of building armies specific to the foes you'll be dealing with. Sure, spears and shields are cheaper and are generally better against factions with missile based damage (elves, dawi, kislev) but if I need to go up against Ogres or Bretonnians, Im picking Halberds every time.
As for taking Helmgart, you should be table to do it by turn 4 in addition to taking Eilhart:
Turn 1 I take Grunberg and recruit a Huntsman General, recruiting two archers into the new lord army.
Turn 2 I march Franz and the Huntsman General towards Ubersreik, while recruiting a third Huntsman General.
Turn 3 Franz can solo take Eilhart while the 2 Huntsman Generals and their handful of archer units can dispatch Ubersreik - its a bitch cheesy with kiting the Huntsman Generals, but the two of them can easily take down half the opposing force before getting your archers involved. Keep them hidden and prepared to position to mop up the remaining units. End turn by recruiting a Warrior Priest. You can use these three lords to ambush the Secessionists stationed in Helmgart as theyll severely underestimate your balance of power. Again with a healthy dosage of kiting you can win with just these 3 lords and handful of archers
On Turn 4 you can mop up Helmgart with Franz and these 3 lords. Subsequently camp out around Eilhart and Kazrak should walk straight into your forces in ambush and wipe himself out on Turn 5.
Would love to see a video about the dark elf guy who starts over in cathay, or the demon prince. both hard AF campaigns at start
What? Daniel might be, but Lohkir is one of not only the easiest DE campaign, but the whole game .
Turn 1, starting battle potion of feeling roll. RNGesus was with you, this was truly a blessed run by sigmar
Empire Warrior Priests usually save many of my empire campaigns. They are so damn strong as a single human unit.
In TWW 2, I beat a Chaos 4 stacks with Empire army with Settlement garrison because when my outriders ammo ran dry, the winds of magic is exhausted, but FAITH remains.
I *love* the warrior priests.
Fantastic video, all valid and helpful points. Can't wait to see the rest of the faction guides. Maybe Dwarves or Lizards next?
Thanks you! all Suggestions are taken, but Dwarves will likely come after Thrones of Decay as they're getting changes.
I do love this video series. It inspired me to try Skragg, and I had a good time with that campaign. And oddly, while I despise playing Empire, your video does push me to possibly play them again. I don't despise Empire because I'm unsuccessful with them, but because I just don't enjoy it. I don't like the available infantry, the early to midgame ranged is abysmal imo, I don't like managing Elector Counts. Admittedly, I last played Karl in the 2nd game, for achievements; and have only played Volkmar in WH3. So if the Elector Count system is better than previous iterations, I'd be willing to try again.
Unfortunately the elector count system is still...bad, but The Empire's in a reasonable spot.
By the way, you can only recruit shielded spearmen from a t2 barracks, those basic ones dont get shields. Also you can drag the re-enforcement angle around so that bad angles done happen, but it extends how long it takes for allies to arrive!
this was actually really help full. I learned to never build a Reiks guard only army.
Now this is the gravy train video youve been looking for Blake
all aboard!
Great guide! Really helpful. Kinda unintuitive that single entities would be better frontlines than infantry, but that's how TWW works
It'll be cool seeing how the new changes will change Franz's starting moves, and if It'll change the grand campaign in any way
i would love to see chaos warriors/chaos dwarfs in the future, they are my favorite races to play as
🔜
Wow, im early
Feels weird I know lmaooo
The best kind of on-time.
I still watch these videos as someone who plays exclusively on Legendary/Very Hard, I guess hoping that there is some sneaky trick I have yet to learn. Sad reality is is... the only strat left is to "get gud". To ALL the gamers out there, I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.
There’s actually some fun strats for the empire, I recommend you to take nuln by force after the secessionist. It will give you a great economic base, an Autowin elector count unit in the steam tank and nuln hates your guts anyways you would take ages to confed them peacefully
That nets you a -7 authority, but who cares you’re just gonna clap vlad next by slowly camping through his vampire territories and then trapping him before sieging castle drakenhof
Once you wiped him (don’t take out the weak vamps first because they will actually distract him in a helpful way) your economic base is so solid you can afford 2 1/2 stacks now you can decide to either try to play good empire man and not go to civil war (which is weak because it takes forever) or you confed a strategically important ally (Balthasar) and drop down to -10 to have a jolly old civil war against a bunch of weakling empire factions
Averland you overrun first to connect your territory, stir land will be fighting back because they have no enemy, talabecland and Hochland will usually be taken out or decapitated at the least by festus (by the way squeez Hochland for money early on because they die quickly but don’t make any treaties with other empire factions you don’t 100% want to confed, they will at some point force you to break treaties which is terrible) midden land is in shambles because of festus and khazrak. Marienburg doesn’t care but has most likely been decimated by either kemmler or louen, nordland is getting rekt by norscans, ostland (?) is being rekt by drycha and the last dude up north is really too far away to be doing much
Voila you just gobble everything up and make sure to get NO authority because now you want to stay at -10 (-10 is actually good because it’s neutral in terms of bonus malus)
Best elector count units are tbh the Hochland long rifles … such insane missile troops
After you have united the empire you are literally steamrolling everything else unless you managed to get your ass into too many other wars due to bad diplomacy (appease the dwarfs and kislev man …)
One tip for dealing with Vlad: 1 unit of basic outriders can kill him 100 to 0 with all their ammo and good kiting. Very helpful for Balthasar Gelt who starts with a unit of outriders. Getting him to chase after them can be a bit of a hassle and you have to make sure all their dog/knight units are dead but it's a pretty clean way to kill him.
3:10 you could also have your second lord constantly siege and run away here. That way u can finish the reikland province, and helmgart wont be a bother until youre ready to take it.
really nice job! Now I want to try Karl Franz campaign
Glad to hear it!
Feels good to hear i'm doing, at least, some things right. For the rest i can say i learned much from your videos. Please keep up the good work, and maaaaaybe you can do a take on the true emporer Vlad von Carstein. Just to see the other Side of things.
42:40 - A fellow appreciator of the Imperial Weaving Economy, I see.
it's good to see another man of culture.
One random guy definitely not playing the bait for Karl Franz army: “Hey! Hey look! I am stealing 3 bugs from you… I also cut in front of your grandma during her grocery shopping!”
I hope you do this for all factions; As someone who plays FPS's/MOBA's and other sorts these videos are great plus the way you present everything in these types of videos are S-Tier for me
Thank you friend, I hope so too!
Now with Nuln Ironsides you can use replace your frontline with them and have a solid front that can shoot at the enemy until they reach you (if this even happens).
Cannons can become cheap infantry killer with their grapeshot upgrade as Nuln.
Free Company Militia can be a good supplement for shielded spearmen as you get into the mid game, as whilst theit melee defense is a good deal lower, having 1 or 2 units to help with peppering down enemies that get close wuen you don't have the funds for more artillery or higher tier dedicated missile units can certainly be useful, although a niche function
FCM's are an excellent early game 'chaser' unit because they can fire while moving. I use them on flanks in low tier armies, to fend off enemy fast attack. They can shoot/tangle with wolves decently enough, and if the enemy has it's cavalry stuck in FCM it's not killing your much more valuable dedicated ranged troops. They can also chase routing enemy infantry with shoot on the move, and fight them if they regroup and turn around. And, of course, Volkmar turns them into goddamn royal marines
I need a "Why you suck with the Beastmen", it is the only faction with which I truly and utterly suck.
soon my friend.
Amazing series,keep them coming. I'm waiting on Cathey video to come out 👍
Thank you friend!
If you must explain how to use Empire units so thoroughly, it means they're worse than anything else in the game :/ I can play with almost every faction in WH3... apart from Empire and Skaven :) while me struggling with Skaven is entirely on me... I now see that me struggling with Empire is on the game itself xD great video ;) love this series so far :)
I kind of view the empire as pink armoured skaven, so it's fascinating to me that those are both the factions you struggle with.
Hopefully the video can give you a steer on it!
A word about Huntsman Generals:
They make for excellent lords of a secondary army, as they buff the hell out of your ranged units, giving them purpose in the lategame.
By the way, are you planning on doing a video about Wulfheart?
I'll probably do an addendum video to this, there's been lots of interesting comments on this video.
Hopefully, but probably not for a while.
Legendary difficulty, very hard combat, I find going straight for Marionburg makes the Empire campaign even more challenging and thus more fun. This is what happens when you've beaten the Empire campaign 5+ times
I love these videos so much lol. Have you thought about doing one for Azazel?
Absolutely!
@@BlakesTakes420 Yay~ Azazel is my favorite, but there's not a ton of guides or current campaigns on him from what I've seen. So that'd be dope as hell.
Entertaining and informative video. I have had epic battles with a level 20+ Vlad, I would advise to not auto resolve - get better at the battle game. I normally get issues as time moves on and potential allies start to fall. The Dwarves fall to the Orcs/Skaven - The Bretonians fall to the Orcs/vampires - the North gets attacked by chaos and Norsca and the Elves fall to the dark Elves. Like the Roman Empire I still can smash anyone BUT the edges start to fray..... Greatswords are decent and I quite like lobbing mortars.
Good comment, I enjoyed reading it. I find an early campaign against the barrow legion really helps prop up Louen.
Halberdiers outstrip Shielded spearmen but only late game after you got the technology that gives Halberdiers charge defense vs all, and ONLY vs certain factions (Vampires, Chaos, Norsca) because they lack ranged options and rely heavily on armor and/or large monsters. For everyone else the benefits of shields are just too great. I usually take at max 5 frontline troops, I find this is a good magic number for coverage. It also, conveniently, lets me create a gunline with 4 gaps I can stick ranged troops into. Learn gunlines! There's an infographic out there from way back in TWW1 that explains how they work. Elevation and terrain is extremely important and non-flat terrain can completely inhibit your guns ability to shoot, so it pays to zoom all the way down to ground level and get a mans eye view of the terrain so you can see *exactly* what is in front of your troops when positioning your army.
In terms of redline skills I don't skip empires finest because of the MD buff it gives to basically all of your troops. Early game when you rely on them moreso than heroes and steam tanks, the good chunky bonus to stats you get is very useful.
Huntsman General aren't good but they're good garrison stick lords which are more justifiable these days with multiplicative upkeep being taken out. They give buffs to very cheap core units - spearmen and archers (and greatswords for some reason but why would you ever take greatswords not even franz takes greatswords lmao). They also give buffs to nearby ranged troops with their aura, and their unique skills are available from level 1. This makes them good later on when you can recruit lords at higher levels from go, and all you need is someone with a quarter to half stack to garrison an at risk settlement or province. In general, Arch-Lectors are your best lords and it's not even close - empire generals can get griffons that let them attack the back line or important targets but only at high levels, and their prayers offer huge benefit to troops nearby. Likewise Warrior Priests vs Captains - though captains are a little easier to stomach since you get pegasi much sooner and the training skill has been overhauled to be multiplicative rather than a flat trickle. Sure would be nice if they got Demigriff mounts like they're supposed to, because yes that is a thing on the tabletop.
A good read.
I never invest technology into melee infantry because of their poor damage output.
I view empire melee infantry as slightly armoured skaven.
I would like to point out that wagon and artillery lord buffs stack on mortar wagons.
V for Vendetta reference!!! Definitely earned a sub. Made my day. Thanks 🙂.
You're most welcome, thank you for the lovely comment.
For no4, you can move the elector count swords around after you assign them as counts, even have all of them in 1 battle.
You sure can!
For people struggling with empire, dont feel too bad. The empire is in need of an update as they are currently a victim of power creep, with so many enemies to fight who will roll over the other elector counts with ease. Their units will struggle to perform compared to their counterparts unless buffed by heroes. Karl is a good duellist and support lord but has low melee defense to tank with and has less hp than a kislev hag witch.
Imperial armies are also a little too expensive for how mediocre they are and youll find you can really only afford one good army to defend reikland province, forcing you to constantly pivot to new threats as they appear. In my campaign i had to systematically deal with kemmler, festus, kazrak and vlad. Later on i had appearances from wurzag, wulfrik, belakor, azazel, archaeon, ikit claw, who wiped out the wood elves and sent multiple large stacks of high tier troops and nukes. I only managed to finally push him out of athel Loren with help from louen and belegar.
In summary, it is pain in the best way and the most fun campaign ive had
This guide sparked my interest into getting back into a Warhammer campaign. I would love to see a Bretonnia video.
Glad to hear it. Brettonia will have its day, very soon.
Solid in-depth video. You missed the 2 important ones. 1. You don't use your prestige early to get a confederation turn 6 - 8 with a strong army. 2. You don't use additional lords early to xp leech to lead future armies while upkeep is low.
35:52 *Charges Reiksguard into enemy spears* - "Look how he massacred my boys"
good eye. It was a custom battle so their sacrifice will not have a long term impact.
I just finally reclaimed the entirety of the Empires lands and confederated all factions on very hard/very hard, turn 92. Man, what a nightmare Sylvania turned out to be. Like in this video I ignored them initially to go north and deal with the threats there, but before long they had carved a huge swathe westwards and taken out half of the other elector counts. Before I had even finished beating back Festus, they declared war on me.
The only thing that saved me was - get this - my trade and good relations with Orion, which let me sign a defensive treaty with him. As if on The Last March of the Ents, those beautiful tree bois started knocking out huge vampire doomstacks, pushing deep into the east and giving me breathing space. I even gifted him a province just to help him defend me.
Meanwhile Ahzag had conquered the entire eastern mountains and knocked out all the dwarfs, right down to the south aswell, and he declared war on me. Every empire and dwarven faction near me had been crushed by their enemies, I considered this campaign lost - but I was going to fight it to the last. I desperately sued for peace with Syvania after destroying 5 of their armies with some autoresolve lightning strike nonsense. Then I focused my entire economy on grinding back the Greenskins, which was a bloody 30 turn campaign, ending at the gates of fallen Karaz-a-Karak, before they finally asked for peace.
With that resolved, the cancer in the center of my Empire that was Sylvania was ready to be purged. While keeping barely enough defenses on my southern border to beat back constant Ogre attacks, I mustered 6 armies bristling with artillery around Sylvania, declared war, and with great relish, crushed them in a pincer move. Glory to the Empire.
This was a glorious read. Last march of the ents part was superb.
Praise be to Sigmar.
5:40 The "V"ocab is some God tier stuff... like gosh damn.. would make "V" from Vendetta blush.
Thank you sir, your kind words words fill me with joy.
One small preference for me is to place my single entities about 3/4 of the way through my ranged units... range. If you put them at the absolute maximum, it makes your ranged units very inaccurate, providing less value per shot.
This is true about range drop off.
The Empire can recruit so many melee heroes I don't even know why people bother with other units. You can get entire stacks full of captains and warrior priests. Who cares they're not the strongest? By the time the Dwarfs get 1 Thane you can get like 5 captains and at least 2 priests.
Another glorious video. Thanks for the upload!
You are most welcome my good man.
I finally got to watching! Thank you for stopping by. Really great video!
Glad you enjoyed it sir. Great Khorne stream the other day.
Thank you! @@BlakesTakes420
This was a really good guide and just funny enough to make it interresting😂
I will take faith, steel and gunpowder to heart❤
Glad you like it friend.
Im curious if you could do one about grimgor. He seems like he would be a fun one for a video
I sure could. I love Grimgor.
my english is not the best... but in my opinion, this is the best summary or guide to understand empire. i think i get the point. and now.... new game and try. love it!
Thank you so much! What a lovely comment. I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.
WW II + simpsons reference. My dude, you just got yourself a new subscriber, and a well deserved one
Exxxxcellent
So impressed with the V speech mixed in with the reason 2 explanation!
Thank you sir! 🫶
Finally. Best videos on Warhammer 3 by far.
You're most kind for saying so!
Love this series! Plans to do all factions or just particular ones?
This is a great guide. In my most recent play through i did most of this, but wasted too much time not confederating when i could have. I thought it would be helpful to have another ai fielded army more than i needed the land. At some point that impeded my progress.
Still, I also wish I could actually peacefully get nuln atleast one time lol
Yeah I was forced into conquering Nuln too haha
37:05 I myself liked using that strategy as Clan Mors in order to better focus my armies into one enemy at a time.
In particular, since the Empire did not like me and my expansion in the world edge mountains or the border princes and since I myself had a personal grudge towards Chaos factions for the end times I found the perfect ally in Vlad Von Carstein, taking and selling to him Empire territory and acting as my shield against the many Chaos factions in the north. Basically changing Warhammer history by replacing Men and Dwarves with Undead and Skaven valiantly standing against the forces of Chaos. (And with an extra war in the east where Skaven and Ogres also fight Chaos Dwarves.)
Sure my troops are in danger of attrition in his territory but so is the enemy and unlike me, they cannot bypass it via the underway.
This is basically just a video that Albrecht Von Wallenstein would make about tactics in the 30 years war.
"The age of knights and halberds is over, just use guns and spears"
Played a campaign after watching this video and damn I have no idea how people deal the very, very early game fights without either DLC for missle damage.
I recommend not confederating any Elector counts apart from Gelt, until you hit a high number of Imperial Authority (20+). Because if you don't confederate you will gain a lot more passive Authority (by declining the confederating)..
*Read the title of the video*
Me: *and I took that personnally*
A brave attempt at spelling personally, sir.
@@BlakesTakes420🫠
One point to add to the diplomacy:
When you want to attack an Faction which has a allience, look with what factions they are allready at war with and Join this factions war with your target. With this their alliened factions are not at war with you
Wow this is great! Please make one with Vampire Counts/Tomb Kings!
Sure thing! Vampires will be soon.
I love your content. I actually just picked up Warhammer 3 because I watched a lot of Grim Kleaper's Vids and I got totally overwhelmed by it. (Probally starting my first campaign with Bretonia bc they looked cool wasn't so smart)
I learned a lot in your vids like recruting a second commander or using heroes in my armies :D
I'm rly happy to have found you because otherwise I would've just dumped this gem of a game after a while.... thx for the great content and shared knowledge
(P.s. Greenskins especially Orcs made my first long campaign victory a utter blast)
Thank you sir, appreciate you 🫶
When you hear"Faith, Steel and Gunpowder" you would expect different units to fill each role, what they really meant are Grenade Outriders. Its a good thing we are fighting monsters because these things would absolutely be a war crime.
You may not like it but this…. ***points to outriders with grenade launchers***
Is what peak imperial performance looks like.
I love how the Empire is pushed on you like an easy starter faction, when in reality, it's a high skill faction. I started my first playthrough back during Warhammer 2 with the Empire and hated it. I dropped the game entirely. Eventually, I hopped back on and started a playthrough as Norsca. This time, I conquered the entire map, lol.
I love how you push chicken and meth.
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I play a lot of factions, but turns out most of them have good or great infantry as I've come to realise after giving the empire a try after the 5.0 patch. I had to look up if you have a guide and what do you know! A very helpful video even with the new additions and after the changes! Thanks!
You are most welcome sir ♥️