Total War: WARHAMMER II Complete Guide and Best Strategies for Races and Factions

Term Definitions

• faction = a sub-set of a race, indicated by different colors & symbols on their heraldry 
• Hero = a powerful agent of a race; heroes can conduct a variety of Campaign Map actions, and can be embedded into armies to add to the army’s fighting strength. Heroes can be recruited at settlements after corresponding buildings are constructed 
• Legendary Lord = the uniquely-named leader of an army, who is always attached to an army, and who leads a faction in the game. Legendary Lords get quests that improve their effectiveness when completed. All players start with 1 Legendary Lord at the start of the game, and more can be recruited if you Confederate or conquer others of your same race 
• Lord = the leader of an army, who is always attached to an army. Lords can be recruited at cities 
• race = one of the many different species in TWW2; members of the same race tend to have similar overall strategies & playstyles. Members of the same race are represented by the same kind of shield outline in their heraldry 
• troop = a single model or soldier within a larger unit 
• unit = one whole block of troops, represented by 1 unit card

Your First Turns

 
Instead of rushing out to play with your brand-new (and low-quality) armor, consider bulking up that army with a few extra units, to bring yourself to a full stack of 20 units. At the same time, you can get a building or two built, and get some research done. 
Depending on the buildings, this may give you access to new units you want to recruit. 
Depending on the research, it may give you an interesting edge, or perhaps a bonus after you win your first battles. 
The following kinds of research are good to do early, so they pay off the most in the long run: 

• -cost of construction 
• +post-battle loot 
• +loot from occupying, sacking, or razing cities

Veteran Units & Ranking Up

 
The benefits of units ranking up (through copper, silver, and gold levels chevrons) are minimal, but since units get ranks up for free as long as the unit survives, there’s no real downside. 
The two primary benefits of ranking up are: 

• +leadership 
• +melee attack

 
Leadership is unit morale; the higher the leadership, the longer it takes for units to break, flee, and rout off the battlefield. (Some rare units never lose leadership.) 
Melee attack is the unit’s % chance to hit an enemy with 1 attack by 1 troop in the unit. The higher the melee attack, the more likely all melee attacks are to hit (natch). 
 
As you can see below, the change from rank to rank is minimal, though this also depends on the unit. (Units with a lower number of troops get bigger bonuses per troop.) The difference between a rank 1 unit (1 copper chevron) and a level 9 unit (3 gold chevrons) can be meaningful. 
 
 
 
 
a rank 3 Goblin Archer unit <——————> the same Goblin Archers at rank 4 
 
 

Diplomacy

 
Attitude improves by up to a few points per turn, until it reaches it maximum current value. 
Attitude worsens almost instantly, down to the worst value. 
 
 

Replenishment & Replacement

 
Replenishment 
Replenishment is your units “healing” back to full strength, a bit every turn. Some factions out there have tremendous bonuses to replenishment, though everyone can unlock bonuses through campaign actions, wargear, and research. The factions with major replenishment bonuses include the Vampire Counts, Throt the Unclean (Skaven), the Vampire Coast, and several more. 
Replenishment starts occurring after a battle where a unit has taken losses. If the unit is composed of many units, the number of units will be healed & replaced. If the unit is a single unit (such as Lords, Heroes, and Giants), replenishment is the amount of hitpoints they are regaining per turn. 
 
 
some Skaven units enjoying rest & replenishment while in a city garrison 
The green portion of the bar shows the unit’s current strength. 
The yellow portion of the bar shows the amount the unit will heal for at the start of your next turn. 
The black portion of the bar shows the damage the unit is currently suffering. 
 
Units in an army that is stationed in a city enjoy HUGE replenishment bonuses (since they have the resources of the city to help). Units can also replenish in the Encamp army stance, though this is not as good as the city bonus. 
 
Merging Units 
Sometimes, it is better to merge units and return them to fuller strength that way, instead of waiting turns for them to replenish normally. To merge, select two units of the exact same type in your army window, and click the “Merge” button at the top of the new options menu that pops up (or hit CTRL+M). 
 
This will add the units together; any leftover units beyond the maximum strength of 1 unit will form their own unit. 
Merging is a quick way to restore the fighting strength of valuable troops. A unit closer to full strength will not have their morale broken as easily as a under that is under-strength. Merging also frees up unit slots in your army to do more recruiting, including Regiments of Renown. 
 
 

Hero Skills & Abilities

 
A hero’s general skill allotment is displayed in the XP ring in the bottom-left section of their character portrait (which is always displayed in the bottom-left portion of the UI). 
The blue and black spiked ring surrounding this display shows the character’s current XP progress to the next level. As they gain XP, this will fill up with blue. 
The number in the center of the spiked ring is the hero’s current rank, or level. 
The multi-colored pie chart in the middle of the spiked ring shows how the hero’s skills are allotted. See below. 
 
 
This is displayed on any of your heroes, enemy heroes, or ally heroes you select. You can roughly tell what the character is good at based on the amount of color displayed in the center of the XP ring. 

• Yellowskills are Character skills, which give the character new abilities & improve their individual combat effectiveness. 
• Red skills are Battle skills, which give bonuses to the army that a Lord is leading, or that a Hero is embedded in. Not all heroes have Battle skills! 
• Blue skills are Campaign skills, which improve the hero’s effectiveness on the campaign map. For heroes, this includes their effectiveness at Campaign Map actions such as Assassinate/Wound, Steal Technology, Ambush, etc.

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