Started playing Total War again, this time with Total War: WARHAMMER. Figured I'd go through the campaign here, though I'm not sure how familiar anyone will be with Warhammer Fantasy. I'll do my best to explain what each unit is in familiar terms as we go through.

As for the game itself, it plays more-or-less like any other TW game. There's less focus on city management and politics though, with more focus on battles and units. One major difference is the way generals work. In previous TW games, the general would be part of a unit, but in Warhammer your lords and heroes (generals and agents) stand alone, and are pretty powerful. Each faction has a couple of unique generals known as Legendary Lords, who are incredibly powerful faction leaders. Legendary Lords can be defeated in battle, but never killed, meaning that they remain a threat throughout the entire campaign. Each lord and hero has a branching skill tree, which allows you to customise their skills and abilities however you please, so no two lords have to fit the same role.


There's probably a ton of other stuff that I'm forgetting, but lets just jump right into it. In this campaign I shall be playing as the Dwarfs of Karaz-a-Karak, and my faction leader is High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer. The Dwarfs' main strength is their technology - artillery, rifles, tough armour. Dwarf units are also fairly tough in combat, with high morale. Dwarfs are also very slow, however, and have no cavalry units - this makes them ill suited to offense when compared with humans or greenskins. Dwarfs can also only build settlements in mountain regions or badlands, so I'm pretty limited in that regard.


I start in the stronghold of Karaz-a-Karak, which is in a really strong position. Impassable mountains to the north and south, allied dwarfs and humans to the west, and only a minor Greenskin threat to my east. The first order of business is clearing out the greenskins from the immediate area, and capturing the other two settlements in the region. I chose to start with Thorgrim because he gives me a Grudgethrower (catapult) which is incredibly effective against the Greenskins, and my first few battles go pretty smoothly.

My immediate plans are to head through the mountains to the north and link up with two other Dwarf factions there, hopefully get some trade routes going. One of those factions will soon be under attack from the armies of the Vampire Counts, and will need my assistance. The Greenskins to the south are also a major threat, so I'll need to build up my defenses as soon as possible.

World map in turn 1 The light blue area with the yellow castle is me. Red castles are enemies, white are friendly and/or neutral.

Campaign map Karaz-Karak on the left, a minor settlement at The Pillars of Grungni on the right, Dwarf and Greenskin armies in between.

High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer leads his army to battle

Greenskin horde

Advancing under fire

Melee

Standing firm

It is very cool to see Warhammer TW in action. I have never played Warhammer, so I resisted the urge to guy Warhammer TW. But I have been curious. Given that The Creative Assembly has pretty much done every major historical era twice, I suspect they will be branching out more and more into fantasy worlds. Maybe we will see a Middle Earth TW some day?

Wow, this game looks fun! Do you have to know a lot about the WarHammer universe to enjoy the game? Love that self propelled litter your Dwarf hero was riding around on!


Did they ever do any games based on Ancient China? Khajiit agrees a Middle Earth Total War could be awesome!

They never did China. But I don't think they ever will. I doubt there is a lot of interest in the US and Europe for a China-based war game.

Probably true. A shame really. The Chinese "unification" under Emperor Qin would make for an interesting war game. Or maybe Ghengis Khan's conquest.

I agree. The Seven Warring States period would be perfect for a TW game.

I think Warhammer works so well because the tabletop already has all of the units with their stats and abilities - CA just needs to transfer that over to the game. A Middle Earth TW would be amazing!



You could certainly enjoy the game without much knowledge (It's still a TW game, after all), though brushing up on some of the basic lore might be useful(and fun!). The game does a good job of not getting too heavily into the story, and explaining the parts where it does.

Forgot to mention some other systems that are new to Warhammer:

Magic: There are many units in the game that can cast a variety of spells. Spells (and those that cast them) are split up into different types - Lore of Life, Lore of Beasts, Lore of Fire etc. with different schools of magic having access to different spells. Some factions only have access to certain schools, while others can have all sorts of different wizards (The Empire of Man has a huge roster of wizards to choose from). Some factions (like the Dwarfs) have no wizards, but may have something similar(Dwarfs have runelords and runesmiths, who have magic-like abilities).

Agents: As I mentioned before, lords and heroes fight alone on the battlefield, but agents do to! In the campaign map they act as they always have in TW - assassinating people, sabotaging armies, disrupting settlements. If an agent is assigned to a friendly army, they join it as a hero. It's often useful to have a hero with skills that differ from your lord - for example if your lord's skills focus on buffing your army, your agent might want to focus on personal buffs to make him/her a better fighter.

Corruption: There are two types of corruption in the game, Chaos and Vampiric. Chaos corruption infests the world gradually throughout the campaign, and accelerates with the presence of Chaos units (Beastmen, Norscans, Warriors of Chaos). If the Chaos corruption in a region reaches a certain level, non-chaos units will suffer attrition. Vampiric corruption only spreads with the presence of vampires and undead, but otherwise works the same way. Vampire units suffer attrition on non-corrupted land. Factions can reduce corruption in their lands by building certain buildings or having certain unit and faction upgrades.

Faction mechanics: Some factions in the game have unique mechanics, though they're only really relevant if you're playing as them. Dwarfs have a mechanic called Grudges - any time they are attacked, that creates a grudge which must be settled. For example, if Grimgor Ironhide of the Greenskins attacks one of my settlements, I might get a grudge that asks me to defeat Grimgor in battle, or defeat several Greenskin armies. If you have lots of grudges unsettled then you can suffer public order and diplomacy drops, while settling long-held grudges might give you a temporary boost.
Dwarfs and Greenskins also have access to a movement system called 'the underway'. This allows them to access the Dwarven road system underground, and bypass obstacles on the campaign map such as mountains, rivers, and corrupted areas. Armies can be intercepted in the underway and you can fight battles in the tunnels.

Started off well today, helped my Dwarven allies to the north clear out all of the Greenskins in the mountains. This means my allies can focus all of their attention on the armies of the Vampire counts pressing their western borders. We now also share a border, and got a trade route going. The extra income allowed me to develop better artillery - namely cannons and rifles.

Unfortunately the good mood was temporary. Grimgor Ironhide, warboss of 'Da Immortulz' succeeded in unifying the southern greenskin tribes and turned his attention to my allies at Barak Varr to the west. The Dwarfs were utterly outmatched, and pushed back to a single outpost settlement just over the border from my capital. They were keen to join my faction, so I confederated them and sent a force to hold the Orcs back. Not only did we survive, but we managed to defeat Grimgor himself! He'll respawn sooner or later, but I have some breathing room now to shore up defenses and recruit some better units.

Not only that, but I now share a border with a human faction to the west. They were keen to begin trading, so I now have a pretty steady flow of goods in and out of my realm. With no immediate threats to the north or west, I plan to send forces south, into the Greenskin-held Badlands. There's a Dwarf faction down there that may or may not still be alive, and I need to clear out these Orcs once and for all.

Hilltop

A smaller force of Greenskins tries its luck

The main force closes in

My general faces Grimgor Ironhide...

...and survives!

Current world map

Wow, Grimgor is big!

You general is quite the horny fella!

You know what your great victories require? Swigs of strong, Dwarven ale!

SubRosa - fun lore bit: Orcs grow larger every time they win a fight, and Grimgor has never been defeated. iirc he's the biggest Orc in the world.

Khajiit - Dwarfs have a building chain that gives you public order bonuses - ale storehouses.



The 'death' of Grimgor hasn't given me as much breathing room as I'd hoped. A force of Greenskins led by Azhag the Slaughterer (Grimgor's second in command) managed to push deep into my territory and destroy my only barracks. They were destroyed shortly after, but rebuilding is taking time and resources I would rather use elsewhere.

I also lost a general today. I spotted an unoccupied settlement and sent a lone general to capture it, but some Greenskins had the same idea. Forced to fight an army of Orcs, the general was killed. He managed to take 75 Orcs with him, and I'm hoping that my nearby human allies (this took place on their land) will finish the job.

Over on the Eastern front, High King Thorgrim pushed into the Badlands and captured two Greenskin settlements. A nearby fortress is our next target, but will require a lengthy siege. We discovered that Grimgor's dominion over the Greenskins is not absolute, and his absence has allowed other tribes to start taking some of his weaker settlements. I also discovered that the faction of Dwarfs that begins the game in the Badlands is still alive and fighting! I immediately made an alliance with them so I can see all of their lands, and I'm going to push Thorgrim further south to link up our lands properly. I reckon we have another couple of turns before Grimgor returns, so I need to be ready for him.

My lone general

Meeting the Orcs head on

They should've brought more Orcs...

Map

A heroic death indeed for your Lone General. May he find rewards in whatever the Dwarven ideal of afterlife is, or peace in nothingness otherwise.

Hazmick, those are some pretty large scale battles! Neat how you keep updating what your world map looks like as you progress.

Wow, your lone general looks like a super-hero in the middle of all those greenies.

Today I claimed vengeance for the lone general, destroying the Orcs that killed him and taking their Stronghold - One of the few outposts available to Dwarfs that has access to water (and therefore to more trade routes.) I also defeated Grimgor again, attacking him immediately after he respawned and before he could gather any troops. Finally, after a lengthy siege, Thorgrim captured the Orc stronghold of Black Crag - this robs the Greenskins of a significant source of income, and gives me a solid foothold in the region. With this boost to my treasury I upgraded my barracks and began replacing my warriors with Longbeards (elite warriors).

My Dwarven allies in the south continue to push against the Orcs, and even took Karak Eight Peaks, one of the most important strongholds in the region. This joined our lands with a border, so I sent a force to assist my ally with some minor mopping-up of Greenskin warbands. Grimgor's absence continues to embolden the other Greenskin tribes, so it's quite chaotic down there.

To the north, the Dwarfs of Zhufbar continue to hold strong against the Vampire Counts, but they're pretty much stuck on the defensive. I'm planning to send an army to give them some assistance and rid the world of Undead.

To the west, the Border Princes (my human allies) have lost a settlement to a roving band of Beastmen, which effectively cut the Border Princes' lands in half. I destroyed the Beastmen shortly after, so hopefully my allies will reclaim and rebuild what was lost. They're an important buffer for me against eastern greenskins, and our trade deal is worth a fortune.


Map

It sounds like you are the policeman of Warhammer! Where would these people be without you?

Khajiit may have to look this game up on the next Steam sale. It looks fun!

Did a little bit more this evening. My ally to the south seems to have expanded too quickly and overstretched himself, allowing Greenskins and Beastmen to destroy several settlements. The low public order in the area has also spawned groups of Chaos rebels, which I have been putting down as quickly as possible. SubRosa was right when she said I'm like a policeman - my Dwarfs have been rushing around trying to stop all the unrest and it's not even my territory!

Meanwhile, Thorgrim continued pushing south and captured two major Greenskin settlements. This meant that when Grimgor returned again, he had nowhere to recruit troops except a siege works - resulting in an army consisting of himself and 19 catapult units. I've been able to keep Grimgor down while the other Orcs tear his territories apart.

To the north, I sent an army to help Zhufbar fight the Vampire Lords. We intercepted several major forces of undead and dealt them some pretty heavy defeats - one battle saw my army of 1600 wipe out over 5000 undead. Zhufbar had lost one small settlement, so I moved in and claimed it which should help me with army replenishment and cleanse some of the vampiric corruption in the area.

I'm currently building another army to send west, as I've found another Dwarf faction there which is engaged in a war with a major Greenskin faction. The Wood Elves also live over there, so I need to try and get them on my side. Far to the north, the armies of Chaos are on the move. I have a mod that stops that apocalyptic invasion of Archaon the Everchosen, but the standard Warrior of Chaos armies are still tough to deal with and will require my attention.

Some screenies from a battle against the undead forces of Mannfred von Carstein:

Skeletons advance under fire

Firing line

My Runelord holds off some zombies

Victorious

An enemy Banshee holds their left flank steady

My Slayers get to work

Quick look at the campaign screen - my army sets up camp between Vampire and Dwarf lands.

One thing I haven't mentioned about vampires is the way their leadership works: rather than retreating when their morale drops, their units start dying (re-dying?) as the necromantic energy that brings them to unlife begins to fail. This makes their lords and heroes (vampires, necromancers, banshees) hugely important, since they give leadership boosts to nearby troops. Undead will usually fight to the last, but killing all of their lords and heroes on the field usually results in the immediate and complete annihilation of the entire army. This is both a strength and weakness, depending on the power of their heroes.

Can you be the skeleton army?!

Looks like lots to keep track of at once!

Well if it's like the other Total War games, you don't control each individual unit (the heros in this game seemingly the exception here). The units you control are grouped together into divisions of varying numbers (for instance one division may have 80 men while another more powerful division may have 60). So once you get onto the battlefield, it's not that difficult.

The undead army looks like it would be a lot of fun to play.

Your Runelord cleaned house on those skellies.

But no one wants to get close to that Banshee!

Another update.

Good news from the south - Grimgor Ironhide's faction of Greenskins has been destroyed! There's only one tribe left, a group of Savage Orcs (less advanced than regular Orcs, but tougher in melee combat) that I'm dealing with quite quickly. Only two more settlements to go before the Badlands are fully controlled by Dwarfs.

To the north, the undead have fallen back in the face of a large Dwarven assault. Myself and my ally at Zhufbar have each sent two armies into Vampire territory, and destroyed one of their capital settlements. We can't move very far or very quickly due to the vampiric corruption, but with two armies I should be able to keep both Vampire factions on the back foot.

Even further north, I can now see the armies of Chaos. They're obliterating every human settlement they encounter, and Chaos corruption is spreading throughout the land. As much as the Vampires are my enemy, their corruption has done a good job at blocking Chaos for the most part.

Some shots of a battle against savage Orcs:

Savage Orcs

Steadfast Dwarfs

My Slayers and Longbeards have to fight hard

Thorgrim gives chase to the fleeing Orc Warboss

Victory!

Chaos corruption on the campaign map - formerly a land of rolling green hills and lush forests.

So what happens to Grimgor now that his faction is destroyed? Does that kill him for good as well?

Wow, that Chaos corruption just ruins everything.

Yep, with his faction destroyed, Grimgor is gone for good. I've been really lucky in this campaign to have him respawn within striking distance - if he gets to a high level he becomes really powerful.

Ok it's official: as soon as this game goes on Steam sale, Khajiit is getting it.

Had a busy day in the Warhammer world today.

Started off by destroying the last Greenskin faction in the southern Badlands, then confederating the southern Dwarf faction into my own. With the entire Badlands under my control, I set about stabilising the public order and getting lots of mines built. I'll need to leave a couple of armies in the area to keep an eye on things, but it's pretty much secure now.

After that I headed north and finished off both vampire factions. It was slow going, and their corruption might be permanent, but there'll be no more undead lurking around. There was a little complication when the Zhufbar Dwarfs declared war on me (they actually declared against my human ally, who I sided with) but they accepted a peace treaty after I captured all of the settlements in the Zhufbar region. I hope to confederate them soon, but they're being stubborn.

The Chaos invasion turned its evil eye towards the Dwarfs of Karak Kadrin, who managed to defeat Archaon the Everchosen and destroy the Warriors of Chaos faction. Karak Kadrin joined my faction soon after that, so I now own all of the eastern mountains. This also allowed me to recruit another legendary lord - Ungrim Ironfist, king of the slayers. Ungrim's skills make him ideal for fighting Chaos, so I've dispatched him to the northern edge of the world to secure the ruins of a Dwarven faction up there (we were too late to save them) and destroy the Chaos Norsemen.

While Ungrim heads north, Throgrim is leading an army west. We've found another Greenskin faction (potentially equal in strength to Grimgor) and also learned that another Dwarf faction is still fighting the good fight. Just before logging off today I unlocked and recruited the Dwarf's final legendary lord - Grombrindal - who is an incredibly powerful fighter and leader. He'll lead an army just behind Thorgrim to fight these Greenskins.

Screenies from today, first from the final battle against the vampires:

Isabella von Carstein, last of the vampires

My shiny new Organ Guns - they have less range than a cannon, but their 4 barrels are devastating to big groups like undead and goblins.

Cavalry charge - you can't really tell on the screenie, but this hill was so steep that my Thunderers could fire over the Longbeard's heads as the cavalry approached

Now some from my first battle against the new Greenskin faction, the Crooked Moon:

Goblin Chief Skarsnik and his pet squig, Gobbla

some Night Goblins are introduced to Dwarven rifles


Map - as you can see, there's a large colourless portion of the map. That used to be human lands, which were destroyed by chaos. The surviving humans are slowly resettling them, but it'll take a long time.

Isabella's outfit looks almost Skyrim.

Seeing Haz play this game make Khajiit want a First Era set TES strategy game soooo bad! Well, Khajiit has wanted that for a while actually, but still!

Those bats look really neat.

That squig has one big mouth!

Made good progress today, defeating Skarsnik and his Greenskins. That's the last Greenskin faction in this campaign (though more can pop up as random events) so I can focus on other things now.

I went to war with the Zhufbar Dwarfs again, and this time I completely defeated them, meaning that I now control all of the mountains on the east side of the map. The Dwarf faction that I went to look for in the west is still alive and well, so I immediately got a defensive alliance going.

There's a minor faction of vampires in the west that Thorgrim can deal with, and the Wood Elves have declared war on me so I might have to fight them too. Thorgrim himself has done some quest battles and unlocked some of his unique items, so he's quite powerful now.

Up north, Ungrim Ironfist made good progress against the Norscans, and resettled the Dwarf hold of Kraka Drak. Unfortunately, after being weakened while helping a human ally, Ungrim was wounded and his army destroyed by Wulfrik the Wanderer, Norscan Chief. As soon as Ungrim is back on his feet I'll send him back up there to carry on the fight. Hopefully the settlement's defense forces can hold out by themselves for a while.

First, some screenies from a quest battle; The Battle of Black Fire Pass:

Black Fire Pass

Orc Warchiefs can get wyvern mounts

Thunderers

My human allies arrive to help

Arachnarok


Next, some shots from a battle against Chaos:

Magic and monsters

Dwarven ranks are battered by spells

Wolf-kin vs Slayers

The bigger they are...


Bonus screenie of Grombrindal fighting Skarsnik & Gobbla

Map

Spent most of my time today waiting for Ungrim to come back and build up his forces. Once that was sorted I did his first quest battle and unlocked one of his unique items - the Slayer Crown. Now he should be well equipped to get revenge on the Norscans and settle some grudges.

Thorgrim also did a quest battle, and unlocked his final unique item - the Great Book of Grudges. He's now moving to engage Mousillon, the last remaining vampire faction who make their home on the west coast. They're not as powerful as their eastern brethren, so Thorgrim shouldn't have any trouble.

Lastly, I defeated the Wood Elf king in battle, and they agreed to a peace treaty. I then confederated the Dwarf faction on the Elves' border, which gave me another legendary lord - Belegar Ironhammer. There are only two Dwarven factions remaining, though they are stubbornly resisting confederation. I might just be able to win the campaign by making military alliances with them, but I'll have to double check.

First some shots from Ungrim's quest battle, against a Necromancer conducting a mysterious ritual:

Ungrim Ironfist

Wraiths

The ritual complete, enemy reinforcements join the fray

The Vampire Lord and his undead dragon punch straight through Dwarven lines

but they are no match for the Slayer King

Next from Thorgrim's quest battle, more undead:

Shot from the cutscene, shortly before the Dwarfs are ambushed

Gyrobombers deliver their payload

A retreating Gyrobomber is swarmed by giant bats


Map

It's cool to see the airborne units. The TW games have evolved a lot.

Undead dragon?!!! Khajiit wants one!

SubRosa - The airborne units add a whole new element to the battlefield, especially during siege battles or against artillery. Lots of lord and hero units can unlock flying mounts, which makes them extra formidable.



Victory! I just finished up the campaign. All I had left to do was take the remaining Dwarf holds (took some through confederation and the others through war) and clear all of the grudges from my book. I've been keeping on top of all my grudges throughout the campaign, so the only one that remained was to defeat Wulfrik the Wanderer.

Ungrim Ironfist's army had a tough fight against Wulfrik's Norscan tribesmen and monsters, but the Dwarfs won the day.


As always, here's the map. The human factions were continuing to retake old land, and even moved into the lands formerly owned by vampires. This all helped reduce corruption, and much of the world is back to being green, healthy, and not on fire.

I could keep playing the campaign, but I have all the settlements that I can capture. Besides, factions tend to start fighting amongst themselves when they run out of goblins, undead, or chaos to fight.


I'll be starting a new campaign, but I can't decide who to play as. It'll either be Wood Elves or Beastmen.

Khajiit votes Beastmen!

Congrats!

I concur with the cat. The Beastmen sound like they would have more exotic units for us to see!

Beastmen it is! I'll start tomorrow. I must admit, they're one of my favourite factions to play as.

Beastmen roster is, as the name suggests, entirely monster-based. They're a Chaos faction, so there'll be no alliances or diplomacy - Beastmen exist purely to fight and spread Chaos. They have no artillery to speak of, and very few ranged units (only 1, I think) so very much the opposite of the Dwarfs. Units such as Minotaurs and Centaurs will be the elite of my armies, backed up by powerful lords and mages.

Beastmen are also a horde faction, so no settlements to worry about. They share a rare trait with the Greenskins - Bestial Rage. Each army has a 'Bestial Rage' gauge, which increases when you raid and fight, and decreases when you're idle or lose a battle. When it gets high enough, a smaller AI controlled army (called a Brayherd) will spawn and attach itself to the main force. You have limited control of the army, just telling it to follow you or attack certain settlements, and can't choose what units it is made up of. At low Rage, your army will suffer from attrition as the Beastmen begin fighting one another. It's a really cool system.

We'll primarily be fighting humans and Wood Elves. The Wood Elves have a surprising amount of non-elven units, about half their army is made of tree-kin, dryads, etc which should prove a good challenge for the Beastmen.

Sounds good! For the horde!!!...

... oh, wrong game,

Made a start with the Beastmen today. Went with Khazrak One Eye for faction leader. Of the 3 legendary lords available, he has the best starting position. We begin in the lands of Estalia, a human faction, and have two armies - one lead by Khazrak and another lead by a chief called Ghorros. As we're a horde faction, each army also has buildings available to build when they set up camp, and the loss of an army is like losing a settlement. Unlocking buildings takes time though, as faction growth is really slow.

Turn 1. We immediately moved to attack the nearest human settlement, which fell easily to Khazrak's herd. Afterwards we split our turns between raiding and recruiting. While Khazrak laid siege to Estalia's primary settlement, our second army took another settlement before rejoining Khazrak to finish the humans off.

Now we're moving north, into the lands of Bretonnia (cavalry-based humans) and the Wood Elves. Each of my armies has raised a brayherd, and then lost the brayherd to attacks from Wood Elves. We'll get revenge eventually, but a quest battle to the north is more important for now.

Map at the start of turn 1

Minotaur and Gors

The humans of Estalia

The humans advance under arrow fire

Minotaurs certainly know how to make an impact

A shot for size comparison - Gors are taller than humans, Ungors are smaller.

Khazrak pushes ahead

The humans retreat

Pursued by my Gorebull (hero)

The first settlement to fall

What can men do against such reckless hate?

Lol, those humans are looking *fabulous*!

I so want a Gorebull...

Continuing with the Beastmen. I spent all my time today carving my way through human settlements, hitting the Empire pretty hard before turning back to sow chaos in Bretonnia. Now I'm heading back to Imperial lands for a quest.

I've started unlocking some better units, but upkeep costs are preventing me from recruiting much right now. Fortunately there are plenty of enemies nearby, and the humans and Wood Elves are pretty quick to resettle razed settlements once I leave an area. Thanks to me clearing the area, the Wood Elves have managed to almost triple the number of settlements they started with. Once I'm bored with the Empire, I'll head to the Elf lands and see how they're doing.

Some screenies from a selection of battles:

Centigors

Razorgor

Unlocked a unique Minotaur unit

Centigors at work

Blue-clad Imperials are surrounded by my Brayherd

Advance

The Gorebull always has fun

The details are awesome in this game! Your new Minotaur soldier has spots like certain real bovine, lol!

Centaur-Minotaurs! This is Madness!

The Razorgors kind of look like Fenrir/The Beast from Senua's Sacrifice.

The Centigors live up to their name.

Wow, that is a brayhorde!

That's a very phallic statue, and look, it's gushing water. I hope it's water...

The Gorebull's axe is bigger than the humans!

Before I forget, here's the campaign intro video for Beastmen. The old man is your advisor (gives you tutorials and whatnot during the campaign) and has a unique video for each faction.

Had a couple of tough fights today while moving towards the Empire lands.

The first attack, from two Wood Elf forces, came just after Khazrak destroyed a Bretonnian settlement. We took a bit of a beating but managed a close victory. We even defeated one of their legendary lords, which should keep them off our back for a while.

The second attack came in the form of an ambush by three vampire armies as we were moving through a mountain pass. Fortunately I'd made sure to take time and replace any casualties so we managed another victory here.

Both attacks occurred when Khazrak's herd was too far away from our other army to get reinforcements. The wood elves would have won if they'd had one or two more units, while the undead could have fared better if they attacked all at once, rather than each army taking turns during the battle. I've started replacing my Gors with elite Bestigors, so Khazrak's herd is pretty powerful now.

First, shots from the wood elf battle:

Cygor - big ranged unit, the closest thing to artillery I can get.

Harpies

Durthu, legendary lord of the Wood Elves

Gorebull engages Durthu

Durthu falls, thanks to the intervention of some Gors - the Gorebull had barely any health left after this. Durthu was tough!

Centigors clash with Wood Elf cavalry


Next, from the Undead ambush:

Direwolves hit our column first

Followed by hordes of zombies

Minotaurs vs skeletons

Harpies vs giant bats

Reforming the line to meet the second army

Bestigors hold back yet more zombies

I love those big battles where you face army after army. Well, I love them to come rarely. But they really test you. My favorite of those was in Amazon Total War, where I had an Amazonian army that was attacked by 4 Sarmatian armies on the steppe. 3 of the Sarmatian armies were full stacks of 20 units. The last was only a half stack. As in your case they came at me staggered, one army at a time. But since more were constantly coming up, I had to defeat each army quickly so I would be ready for the next. I lost one of my two generals, and was completely out of ammo for my archers in the middle of the 3rd army. My army was breaking up from exhaustion and losses, and the final Sarmatian army finally began coming on line. So I threw everything I had forward into the attack. I even sent my archers into melee. That sent the Sarmatians packing. In the end I wound up killing about 10,000 of them.

Durthu is a Wood Elf!!!

The Gorebull finally found something bigger than he is.

The Wood Elves really had me worried, though I was lucky to face Durthu rather than their Elven legendary Lord. Durthu gives bonuses to Tree-Kin, dryads, Tree Men etc and the force I faced was primarily elves. I thought I was going to lose my Gorebull there too - Durthu is definitely as strong as he looks, and could send the Gorebull flying with each attack.

I know what you mean about the big battles. They were both really fun, though I was disappointed in the undead. 3 entire armies, full stacks, an ambush setting, and a legendary vampire lord should have been way more challenging. Their lord came at me straight away, rather than hanging back and buffing his troops - as soon as he died his necromancy was broken and his army literally fell apart. The other two armies just staggered into a line of angry Bestigors and Minotaurs - if they'd waited to group up I would have been in real trouble.