I would have to say the sisters, however if you are a patient person Eltharion and a mistwalker army is just as powerful. If used correctly and efficiently of course.
I love this stuff. Armchair general type total war content as opposed to "heerrrr derrrr here's the doomstack of the month cheese" that is typical of most total war creators.
Very useful. For Imrik late game, I've found that he's so powerful that I can get by with Imrik, Fire Mage on Dragon, a Loremaster of Hoeth or Life Mage for healing, and four or five Shadow Warriors (because they stalk.)
I feel you there. It's all Mikaela's show, Imrik's just the star haha. People find I main Imrik and ask "Why don't you dragon stack?" Answer is simply "I don't need to and I'll make a meme stack once the campaign is won and the Dragons can be dropped to deal with any crisis". I carry my basic archers through most of the game simply because it they got it handled. Also, not enough people use their Loremasters as healers! Love your army setup - the stalking shadow warriors are clever. I didn't think to use them!
Great video, but would highly encourage learning how to kite with alith anar. His archers get really fast, especially when using shadow magic. Going the formations you used in this video are still great and will work, but you take far less casualties on the move. you can still use heroes to tar pit down flankers and you have poison on shadow walkers + melkoths. I understand not everyone will want to do this because it takes alot more mico, but it is the most efficient way if you want to put the effort in. Great video tho man keep it up!
Absolutely agree with you here. I was aiming to have some moments where I switch a few units onto skirmish mode but it didn't work out that way and I felt going too micro heavy isn't the best way to encourage newer players when the game is already quite micro intensive. What I typically employ is essentially what you outlined there. Kiting can also be used to expose the rear of shielded units to great effect. In hindsight I probably should have gone heavier down this route haha
@@ElvenPlotArmour haha yeah, but as you said, for the people who are new or learning to fight battles more, these formations are probably the best learning tactic to aim for. Until you get a little more comfortable with units and micro.
in campaign I am guessing not only will the dps be up from the campaign buffs from damage and fire rate buffs, but also the speed from campaign buffs as well? I usually in TWWII still mainly use a fire mage with Alith Anars army, because if I have no sisters or less sisters I do like having that option of having that spell to give fire and magic damage to my units, Unless I can get some heroes with that item/book that allows you to cast that spell as a bound spell.
@@MusMasi yeah shadow walkers get big buffs and have poison. You lack really good AP damage but can make up for that with hero/magic. Shadow magic is not needed, it just caters pretty well to the play style of kiting and is fun to not use the same magic all the time.
Consistent top tier content, thank you for making all this. I don't really play High Elves so looking forward to Dark Elves. I seem to have troubles with Lokhir but he's still my favourite. Keep up the excellent work.
Best creator by a long shot. Thank you so much for the detailed and amazing explanation. You make legendary difficulty look easy! Can't wait until this channel blows up and you get the credit you deserve!
I’m very glad that CA changed the Entrepreneur trait. High elves are one of my favorite factions, but in WH2 you just never really got to utilize magic that much unless you recruited a mage lord or loremasters. The mage heroes would all just be sitting around in Yvresse or Lothern.
I love their play in WH3. All the changes have resulted in them being more interesting, even if they need to work a bit harder now, the pay off is worth it.
Such good content. Different army builds, adjusted for legendary lords and how to use them. This is so informative and made me want to try out every HE legendary lord again on a higher diffeculty. Tyvm
Would absolutely love to see one of these for Brets ... I'm always unsure of how many knights to actually field, ratio of shock knights to more sustained combat knights, where to spend peasants etc since most armies have to be a core of knights. Thanks for the amazing content!!
Cheers mate. I'd need to spend some time brushing up on Brettonia and I prefer not to 'guess' when giving advice as there's already so much misinformation out there. I'd recommend joining our Discord (see description). It has channels for each race and a community of legends that would love to help!
Love this vid, great explanation and broke down the reasoning for the choices! Have you thought about doing similar for the campaign map? I.e why buildings go in what slot depending on region / enemy? I always find it tricky picking what to build.
Sounds like an interesting concept. I'll certainly make something in that direction soon enough. Is there a particular situation or scenario that creates the most confusion?
Appreciates this video so much. I've always been a fan of eltharion since wh2 but never invested in hands of glory at all even when replaying him in IE again recently as I deemed it useless in my playstyle. Now I know what I've been missing out with my fav HE LL and sentinels of astaril :") Guess I know what I'll do next time when replaying eltharion again
Thanks mate, this is my WH2 Guide: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZjYCLy8wgm4.html Honestly, only the hero traits are what has changed and (being honest) I still believe this is the best HE Campaign Guide still. Everything here I still use (I have a couple of longform WH3 streams if that's of interest). If you just want the updates from WH2 to WH3, this vid has you covered ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aMcMgmTSj5U.html Cheers for the comment and good luck in those campaigns!
A late comment but love the vid it helped me much. Love your content as always. I want to see similar type of video for Dark Elves especially. They are my favourite faction but I sometimes struggle against early high elf stacks cause of their higher range. And it would be cool to see your ideas or compositions for their melee infantry as well. I love darkshards and shades very much but I wanna use Executioners and other melee units as well. Also Cathay and Kislev would be cool too. Anyway love your vids keep up the great content.
Awesome stuff. I do find you can compete for volume with the game in some videos though, used to be music now its tyrion barking commands haha. Still a pleasure to watch tho thank u
very good video, but on 3:12 and 10:55 I think that we can not take any melee units at all, and tank the enemies in the beginning with archers, and from the middle with heroes and lords, there should not be heavy losses(I mean an army of t0 archers, of course) and the placement of units is very high quality, it is almost 80% of victory in battles with such an army, it is really useful for beginners to know this
Hey thanks for the input. While I agree with you that the archers can be used and would wipe many enemy armies quicker, there are certain matchups it will get badly rolled by. I'm a big advocate of bringing units that will help you win those tight battles over ones that will just help win easy battles quicker, and against more mobile or robust armies the spear units really come in clutch and help get that 'W' :)
Get confederating to bring the gang together then Chariot army for Tiranoc. Tyrion leads a Lothern guard and silver helm army, Teclis has the Swordmasters army, Eltharion Silverin and silver helms, Khoril gets the super fun, white lion, lions and lion chariot army, Imrik gets Dragon Princes and Dragon army and Allarielle gets her hand maidens and silverin. Any other supporting armys can be made up from the militias. Figure out how to make it all work together and role play your heart out. 😎
Exellent video, i have to say i love your HE content and hope we will see even more in the future. On a side note i have one little question, in your video you said Tyrion makes it possible to recruit silverin guard in 1 turn due to his faction effect. Im not entirely sure how this effect works, since he cant globally recruit archers and spearmen in 1 turn at the start of the campaign, it would be greatly appreciated, if you could explain how exactly this effect influences gloabl recruitment, because i either missunderstood something about it or global recruitment in general.
Hey thanks mate, more HE content certainly coming, just a couple other things in the works first. Tyrion has a skill on his unique tree called "Sense of Urgency" which provides this -1 Global Recruit time. I wouldn't recruit basic units like archers/spears in the early game, but this allows a single barracks to be T3 and he can dismiss his spears for Silverin when possible in a single turn. Very nice! For my other armies I globally recruit 4-5 Silverin. They're worth the investment and make cheap archers safe to punch well above their weight.
you have to be level 12 on tyrion to get the skill that unlocks -1 turn to global recruitment. I think Alith Anar gets this ability as a faction ability.
Thanks mate, multiplayer is great and has different formations are a completely different beast. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and set pretty high standards before I present anything. I'd want to do some serious MP testing before I cover it and I'm currently pressed to produce campaign content. Zerkovich, Turin and Party Elite are some of my fav MP RU-vidrs! Sorry for the letdown, but I'd rather pass you to a strong source than posture as an authority when I'm fairly out of practice for MP
What's hilarious is I ended up getting a dragonwilled lord, got a frugal noble, and had research and the like, so going full dragon army for that guy was both hilarious and dirt cheap, cheaper than running a standard army
For Teclis I like to spam Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters (he buffs Swordmasters), and sprinkle in Phoenixes and cavalry against missiles because I don't have shields.
When you have the world's best caster to destroy the enemy army you're afforded a lot of creative freedom haha. I also like to bring Swordmasters with him, even if only for the lore/fluffyness of it!
And then I googled and found out: you need to own dlc's in order to recruit some units (arielle's sisters, dragons..) and even to be able to confederate some factions. Oh my gosh, the rabbit hole just opened up to me. I'm scared
I have a guide breaking down which DLC does what: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RPHP2LaNYZA.html If you're not that into High Elves, I'd just play a Tyrion campaign to test the waters. If it turns out to be your thing then Alarielle's DLC (Queen and Crone) will give you Sisters of Avelorn, the High Elves' best unit. If you're still eager for more Yvresse boast powerful mechanics with Eltharion who is their best general.
@@ElvenPlotArmour cheers Mr. E.P.A.. I'm currently playing along with your 10 hour stream video with Tyrion. I'm slowly getting the hang of the game, but I'm in no rush, so that's all good. I want to stick with one faction first, so I can learn the game mechanics first without getting distracted by playing different factions all the time. I'm watching a lot more of you playing the game compared to actually playing the game myself, but that's all fine :) Have a good one.
@@petepeterson1240 Tyrion is an excellent choice. True High Elf players recognise him as the best, if not close as he levers the High Elf strengths so well. Good luck mate!
Would love some help dialing in Kislev. Kislev, Dwarves, HE are my 3 favorite factions to play and the Kislev content in general, not your channel, is not as well covered as HE and Dwarves. This is a great video. makes me want to embrace battles more now.
All great factions! I'm still really proud of the Kislev Guide and Tier List I made, really got into them and will prob drop a Formations vid as soon as their DLC hits in case their meta changes massively. Early game basic Kossars, Witches and Patriachs just need 5-6 armoured kossars with shields on the flanks. Late game upgrade them to Tzar Guard and have 4-6 Bear cav on the flanks and you check anything large. Replace your Kossars with Streltsi and they become a hard nut to crack! ...Being poor is the only setback! haha
Nice video! Gave me a lot of perspective, but also new questions lol. I don't do multiple heroes in an army. Generally only one per army. Is there any other benefits to stacking heroes in an army besides some cost effectiveness? Does it work for every faction? I know it's a really variable specific question lol. Only really noticed it on AI and I don't play the game competitively and just with friends. Thanks for the videos! Great big help!
No worries mate. WH2's AI was very abusable with many heroes, even still it's beneficial to have 2-3 heroes in an army if you can because a single hero can die up an entire infantry unit, pinning it still for your ranged units to damage without risking any friendly fire to yourself. Caster heroes are still the most powerful thing in the game and a good melee lord with high melee defense can help check enemy lords and hold your line. Each character has a chance to role items and followers too so another reason to take them!
My favourite core composition is definitely Silvernin Guard with Sisters of Avalorn for later game, but it's easy to change it up. That said, before we got Silvernin Guard, I sometimes just kept tier one spears into the late game. I would quite like most factions to get the ability to upgrade to a similar unit type, much like Warriors of Chaos do now but more limited. Silvernin Guard are basically veteran spearelves kitted out with more magical items, so why can't I upgrade my poor spears rather than disbanding them? Or archers to at least the armoured archers? Ah well, I too don't like ditching my early armies. Either way, I quite enjoy the High Elves. To be fair, Lothern Seaguard can also be shielded, and that can make a huge difference (depending on the enemy you're facing), so it isn't just that they have better melee than regular archers. Gotta love Alith Anar to change things up, though. Eltharion too. I love how the Mistwalkers work out, and while the Sentinels are best, of course, I kinda love the Spire Guard. Ironically, Eltharion is one of the few armies I'm hesitant to invest into Silvernin Guard with. Silly, but why even have those Faithbearers as an option if you're just going to have Silvernin Guard?
Agree with what you mention here. I'm ok with having to hire Elite units instead of upgrading otherwise you'd never need to upgrade military buildings and the game would need a full rebalance. I tend to just pass these units to a new lord (I too have attachment issues). I only bring shielded LSG unless globally recruited in a crisis, may as well bring archers then haha
@@ElvenPlotArmour Definitely agree that for most Order Factions, or just factions with less mobility, upgrading should only go so far. Lorewise, elite units are usually trained to be that way specifically. Silvernin Guard shouldn't just upgrade into Phoenix Guard, despite both having "Guard" in their name. Regular archers just aren't going to become Sisters of Avalorn. And yeah, unshielded Seaguard are just... bizarre. No reason to take them under normal circumstances... unless they could upgrade into Gate Guard, which would make them have the same range as regular archers (though I'd rather have that as an upgrade path for armoured archers). And given that they're Lothern Seaguard specifically, I'm not sure if they should be something regular Archers can just upgrade to. I also feel the same way about unshielded Silver Helms. Silver Helms with shields seem like a bloody waste of time often enough to me that I cannot fathom the reason to ever buy them without the shields. And I think they're unlocked at the same tier? It's silly. Now if you had to buy them, get them some experience, and then upgrade them to shields... but that's just extra steps. Either way, gotta love the High Elves.
I always throw in a couple of flavour units for RPG vibes. I would have 2 White Lions at the rear of the formation Tyrion uses here. This way they can flank around and get the charge in.
@Elven Plot Armour truly. I have him, a couple of loremasters for the lore, and a handful of pheonix units. Usually enough to handle even two decent armies. The only times it gets rough are armies filled with single entity units.
Everyone just needs to admit it. IDC what buffs Allarielle or Eltharion have. Imrik himself is a combat monster. With levels, and once he has his buffs from recruiting dragons, there is no. Other. Lord. That can last even a few seconds against him. Late game, even against a strong anti air for, it still doesn't matter. The Lord of Dragons can conquer at all levels of the game with nothing more than his starting army plus a few of his special dragons. There is no other character in the game that can do that.
The High Elves have very strong Legendary Lords. I wouldn't put Imrik or his faction at the top of the list, but he's still my fav and this more shows just how powerful this race is!
I think there is a case for having Lothern Sea-guard in the front of the hollow diamond formation. The AI in WH3 is much more likely to target your archers compared to WH2. You essentially get yourself Darkshards with shields.
I like this point and it's really well argued. For example, with Dark Elves I'll always put a shielded Darshard at the front of these diamonds for the exact reason you mention, still with shielded spears storming up in front. This is more crucial for DE as they need to romp up and get into crossbow range. I'd say it's a sound move to replace that forward unit of archers with LSG for the same purpose, but I myself don't worry. I upgrade the spears to silverin which tend to attract some attention due to being a T3 infantry while the basic archer can shoot a bit further which is nice. That said, I really like this idea of protecting the front of the archer diamonds with HE and wish I'd thrown it in one of these formations because the lesson is excellent! Cheers mate!
Love your channel, it has been a great help moving my game from average to better than average. I have a question. Do the high elf dedications that are campaign based, IE dedicated to Mathlan for 3% ports persist if they are not on the campaign map through injury or if they were replaced?
Thanks mate. Lords, when disbanded go to the recruitment pool and their global effects still remain on and will unless they are killed permanently. Heroes, if disbanded count as being killed permanently, if they are wounded they are still counting towards your cap until they recover and reappear on the map. Once a hero is dead/disbanded they are permanently gone and all their effects go with them. Hope that helps!
I've been dying to find good Battle tactics. I used to always auto resolve the battles but lately have been having so much fun trying to get better. I still suck tho lol. What would u say is the single best thing to learn for someone trying to get better at battles?
There was a time I didn't enjoy battles and now I love them, they really add to the campaign map as you learn what your skill can deliver thus when you should and shouldn't engage. It's a bit long, but I think I've got the best pair of videos that helps demystify the battle scenario. Many channels talk about the mechanics but that doesn't mean anything without context. The first video shows you how to catagorise every unit in the game and how to react: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pCHwQwtqPco.html Second video is the mechanics and how things are calculated - less important but it'll help you make informed decisions: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N-0vM3IAe0A.html After this, I'd just check out my formation videos. You'll notice I try to use similar themes which transfer between various factions. Last step, is try them out in a campaign yourself! Lastly, getting good with Magic can really help you punch up. Life, Fire and Shadow are the most powerful, common lores. I have some shorts on them. Lastly, if Diplomacy has you lost I've got a guide on that too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jGTbnZMY1Co.html Good luck mate, feel free to ask anything in the other vids.
Great video! Can you do one for The DE and WE? Soemtimes I have trouble fighting High Elves when I play Dark Elves bc of ranged advantage, even with Darkshards with shields
Thanks mate. I definitely have some formations that can help Dark Elf players - they're far more technical to use on the battlefield than their contemporaries but formations can really help manage them well! A few other vids in the pipeline, but those will certainly get made sooner than later. Stay tuned!
These basic archer crap-stacks are making me long for an Oxyotl campaign guide where the answer is "recruit 18 Skink Javelins, repeat" until all of your enemies are gone.
Press and hold right click - this marks the LEFT edge of your formation. stretching it to the right will make it face up, stretching to the left will flip the formation and flip it downward. Press and hold left click and alt to move the unit in it's current formation. Also hold CTRL with ALT and you can now spin the formation. Hope that helps!
More of a reserve battering ram to drop fire and then cycle charge into enemy units engaged in combat. Honestly, the arcane phoenix synergises far better with the High Elf armies. As a lord mount is the best way to bring dragons.
@@trevorbanks4136 High Elves are a defensive army that don't need large entities to smash through the enemy lines. Their arrows shred the masses but they can struggle with downing single entities, small units and guarded artillery. The Arcane Phoenix can outmaneuver the enemy safely, support casters and hammer single entities and small units. Dragons are good lord mounts but they don't solve the few problems HE have. The Arcane Phoenix in the right hands, combined with SoA leaves very few exposures.
You play how you like but I've never understood why people want to crank up the difficulty level just to limit themselves to only a few units. However whats even worse is a company (CA) making the game so even on lower levels you can't afford more than the basic units in 1 army
Hey, i got some questions, i 'm currently playing an eltharion-carl franz h2h campaing with a very skilled friend, and i'm wondering would this work vs a player? cuz for what i see, this works easy vs ai, which doesn't shine for it's military strategy skills, but vs someone i think it should be a bit variegated, also depending ofc of his own army. so any suggestion to make some good doom stack that could more perform well also against h2h players?
Sorry for the late reply. These tactics technically will work, though wider formations are more common in MP as a human will take advantage of flanking even more. Also, if under barrage fire, wide lines will take less losses than in a deeper formation. Keep in mind, a deeper formation is harder to bowl through with cav units. The best army, however, is one you have control of and are able to make the most informed decisions, which is why I design them in this way: To be safe enough to not need to watch eveywhere at once, but have tools to react. The more you move to the later, the more a strong general can exploit the battlefield, but the more exhausting it is. A great maneuver isn't worth it if you turn back around and find your general down. Overall, use formations that you feel in control with and you'll get more efficiency, particularly when things get tight! Note: High Elves are weak to high AP artillery which smashes their right formations. Their units are squishier than humans so AoE works great on them. On the filp side, their troops are old and XP with fine equipment so they will best the Empire Melee, though they are far more expensive since Emprie Troops are citizens (multipskilled artisans, tradesmen, etc). See my Empire Mastery Guide and HE Mastery Guides for a really solid run though. Elves biggest threat is their archers, so shielded spearmen are your infantry of choice here. If he's brinign flyers, use a Light Wizard to net his beasts and bring 4-8 Hand gunners to shred them. Recommend my x2 Hellstorm x3 Volleygun setup and some cav to harass his archers. Don't be affraid to have a secondary army with some cav to reinforce the battle - Having a cav charge from the other end of the map is a death sentence to elf armies. Good luck soldier!
For Tyrion's army, the one shown here as long as you have a mage. This is the most economic. In the late-game, although I would never use it with the DLC, Shielded Seaguard are going to be the backbone of your armies. Oddly enough, having 2 Swordmasters in this army to counter charge in will actually pull their weight as armour piercing is an issue for vanilla High Elves!
True, still Tyrion's affordable army of ranked up elite units could use a heavy flyer to check enemy characters and artillery. If you have the DLC, with other lords, yes Sisters of Avelorn with Silverin Guard and an Arcane Phoenix is probably the most cost effective army with few exposures in the late game.
Alistair? I honestly don't usually hire him as a caster is more powerful, but don't let that stop you having fun! I'd run a similar formation to Tyrion's, but instead of the rear x2 Silverin Guard, I"d have 2 White Lions. If the enemy don't have too many archers, you could replace the centre with White Lions too so you'd have x3 White Lions. Use them as offensive infantry and run into the flanks of engaged infantry to max their AP as an anti-infantry mauler! Still, rely on Silverin Guard to hold that line and you archers are still your offence.
@@ElvenPlotArmour Interesting. You take caster lords over lords with a trait that buff sisters of averlorn? I suppose it makes sense. Also, who do you usually give the Sword of Khaine to? First I thought Tyrion, but then realized it might be more efficient to give it to a leg lord that doesn't get a unique weapon. So then I gave it to Alariel, but didn't realize she didn't have a melee buff line, and she almost lost a duel against some random belakor lord. So now I'm thinking about giving it to Alistair, as a leg lord with a melee line but without a unique weapon. Thoughts? Also I should probably just join the discord at this point XD
@@1001airstrikes I usually don't worry about the Sword of Khaine as it slows your kingdom if aiming to play strong. If having fun? Always Tyrion for the novelty. You're right it's best on a tanky melee lord for the reasons mentioned. Regarding the non-legendary lords, I will always back caster lords so long as they're tough enough, and once on a Moon Dragon, the Arch-Mage's melee weakness is largely circumvented (flying mounts in general will help you cast safely). Magic is the most destructive tool at your disposal and I'd take it over any of the Prince/ess buffs unless it's a crisis army and a level 1 melee lord will perform better than a level 1 caster. Sisters of avelorn don't need buffing, they already do incredible damage. Magic will help you support them and the rest of your army against threats that may threaten archer heavy elf formations.
I’d suggest 5 white lions , a lion chariot or 2, a small ranged core of 1-5 missile units, a beasts caster , loremaster, noble, handmaiden. Get some dragon princes in there too, maybe a Phoenix. You’re going for a rush build, run those lions in there, get the mobile units onto them. Alastair gets a star dragon, he’s a respectable fighter.
I think distracting enemy ranged units with flying units is a bit of a cheat. Winning by exploiting the AI's weaknesses doesn't feel like a real victory. That's why I try to play as realistically as I can.
I don't understand why people think that magic is overpowered. The word is just being overused at this point. Anytime someone says overpowered, I hear "viable on very hard battle difficulty".
After doing a few tier lists I believe every race should have a 1-2 overpowered units by design for them to stand out in their field of strength. Magic is limited by hero caps, so while it performs OP in a battle, this is contained in the context of the campaign by the hero not being spammable. Why I've used this term here is probably to not use too much magic so as to allow the formation to deliver since you won't always have a caster. Interestingly I agree with labeling of "viable on VH" as this typically demands the player allocate funds that are limited and using armies that will deliver above their cost. Using the overpowered tools will lever the cost of your army higher, ie using magic. As a strategist, ensuring this limited resource is applied to the most pressing battles is what will deliver success on VH.
@@ElvenPlotArmour I disagree with the classification of being overpowered. Sisters for example have a balance and that is they absolutely melt in the face of Cavalry especially doomfire warlocks
Against higher level chaos armies simply sub out the archers with sisters of avelorn and the spears with silverin guard, or if you can afford it , phoenix guard. Simply update the weaponry to AP. Fielding nobles and loremasters to support the formation will also provide improved holding.
I do kinda hate battles in WH2 (not buying 3) because it is just stupid monsters W keying into my lines and massacring them. Feels like if you arent just using these units you are gona be hurting.
WH3 definitely improves on this, but it's not "revolution" in AI. On the flipside, the Campaign AI is ridiculously easy in WH3 so if you want good AI, I'd hold off for a few more patches, if you're interested in converting. Otherwise thanks for wathching!
Sisters of Avelorn's magic attacks now bypass physical resist due to the change in the resistance system so technically I'd say we came out net positive here!
