Karak Kadrin Campaign Tips and Tricks for Immortal Empires - Total War: Warhammer 3

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Everything on point here. I liked the idea of hiring some Slayers, then trading out for a regular barracks Turn 2. Good play!

[@itsmehawkeyeg]

It's very common to get that Follower for Slayer Upkeep reduction. And you have the extra 25% baked in as Ungrim. With 5 skill points you can have Casualty Replenishment for them, plus some extra Melee attack, and bonuses on Ungrim. In the early game having a pile of Slayers really isn't that bad for the price compared to Dwarf Warriors. But ultimately you really do *need* at least the Quarrelers. Like any missile unit they deal damage without receiving any. And they perform acceptable in melee themselves if it comes down to it. Slayers just become too niche too fast - but they can still give you an advantage in the very earliest stages of the campaign

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

@@itsmehawkeyeg Very true. I think Slayers can level up and hang strong around the mid game, but it's in support of Dwarf Warriors and (as you mentioned) Quarrellers, not the other way round!

[@SGProductions87]

@@itsmehawkeyeg Enemy dependent (don't do this against Tzeentch) but have you tried blobbing up your slayers and stacking runesmith/runelord/banner/item buffs/debuffs? It's very powerful. For example, overcast rune of speed with one runesmith, cast regular rune of speed with another runesmith, +48 MA, +90% speed and Ungrim in the blob can apply Master Rune of Spite. Or Oath and Steel and overcast version, +90 armour on your slayers. Huge possibilities. Specifically in Ungrim's army it's most resistant to missiles due to Journey's End. Extremely low casualties if you manually fight compared to a regular playstyle.

[@Rodnallac]

Hey man I wished I'd seen this guide sooner. I also focused on Karak Ungor first and went down to Gundabad for the precious gold, whiped out Skarsnik and made friends with Thorgrim. But I then made the mistake to go after the chorfs because I was really looking forward to fight them. I cleaned out their settlements (Loot & occupy for the money and replenishment, then leaving the settlement in ruins), as I went north, took Karak Vlag and went round the mountain range to Kislev and then back south again into my province. My realm is build up well with all the sacking money, but Thorgrim is beeing wiped out by the red hands, queek and Craventail, Sylvania is overrunning everything in the west, Karl is bearily holding on, the east is infested with Skaven clans and Grimgor is not far off. Oh and the chorfs have managed to creep back into their hovels. I'm surrounded and quite stressed out with my two armies...

[@albertwesker4053]

Solid vid bro. Good shit

[@pascaldifolco4611]

I did keep getting Slayers, and used allies to recruit their Irondrakes and Thunderers, works well

[@arthurkocharyan6464]

Great guide!

[@karl-johanv.jensen3659]

I would have liked some comments on how the Grudges should be prioritized. If you move too slowly the negative buffs they give can have quite an impact.

[@DoYouDontYou89]

At least those grudges are helping to replenish any slayers you lose. Especially if you replace the slayer shrine early on.

[@itsmehawkeyeg]

Honestly I didn't think twice about them. Most of the grudge penalties are very easy to offset - I have a video on exactly that topic titled "Dwarf Grudge Problems? I've got solutions". The penalties for high Grudge values aren't very severe. It's fairly easy to offset them through various means, like followers or research. And playing on Legendary campaign it's really the debuffs from that which have the most impact, not the Grudge stuff. Plus as "DoYouDontYou89" says, having a high Grudge count will help in some ways as it will make more Slayers available - meaning you have less to worry about if you delete the shrine early on. I think the progression in this campaign is pretty straightfoward though. So to answer your question: Obviously the Gnashrak's Lair Grudge goes first. And then I don't usually fight the Vampires first - I don't think you'll have time to anyway. You go south to finish off Red Eye Greenskins and then by the time you get back (or before) Azhag will declare war on you. Or at least that has been pretty consistent over the few L/VH campaigns I've played so far. So this means that you naturally go to get Karak Ungor next. And since Silver Pinnacle is on the way. Whether Grimgor already has it, or the Badlands Greenskins, or if it's still the Lahmian Sisterhood - These are all people you should not care about taking it away from. And then even that single settlement can become a nice bastion against the forces in the East with little more than a Garrison upgrade and the Diamonds. Once you're done with Azhag you will want to prepare for fighting the Vampire Counts. In part because they're a significant threat, but also to help remove a threat from the Empire so that they can better support you on the western flank. So that eliminates that grudge. On turn 90+ of my L/VH campaign I still haven't taken Karak Vlag. I would love to but it's too far out of the way.

[@Belfeagil]

I totally agree with that guide, but there's one question i would like to ask you. Do you even bother to rush to west side of the map with some hero to discover Grombrindal and bail him out with confederation? I tried to do that with every single dwarf campaign (no matter of which faction i choose) and seems to me that even when i arrive at 25th turn he is already wipe out there. Another question that follows previous thoughts - do you know is Grombrindal revivable at Drackla Spire?

[@Belfeagil]

Well. actually i've tested it out with Naggarond - Grombrindal does come back by revolting in Drackla Spire.

[@itsmehawkeyeg]

With the way that Confederations work in this game I don't really pursue them as immediately as I might have in WH2. Because of the added features and considerations that are made in the Confederation decision it can often be a little more difficult to confederate successfully. Plus I have kind of come around to the idea of more unique campaigns - playing each faction to focus on their own unique experience instead of over-extending to try and grab each LL before they expire. The other thing is that part of their consideration for confederation has to do with their current "target territory". It was mentioned in one of the recent patch notes. Basically the AI has specific regions they are working towards controlling. If you are also fighting the same enemy as them, and taking territory in that area, it will increase your chances of confederation. And if the AI has recently captured a settlement it will lower your chances of confederation. So unless you're in the same area as them fighting a common enemy - while they're also losing, or at least not gaining territory - it will be hard to confederate even if they're quite weak. Grombrindal would be nice to have but I think it's a bit too much of a stretch to get him on your side for most other Dwarf campaigns. If anything, consider using the "Recruit Defeated Legendary Lords" mod - if it's an important aspect of the campaign to you I don't think you should beat yourself up too much for wanting to get a lord like Grombrindal and not being able to simply because of the distance rather than for lack of trying!

[@bjack1547]

Do you think embedding a runesmith to buff armor will noticeably help slayers

[@itsmehawkeyeg]

It's not a bad idea but Slayers are going to do poorly in longer engagements regardless. Even if they have the armor they don't have the melee defense - I think it would be better to give the Melee attack and speed buff to some Dwarf Warriors instead. Even the Slayers would benefit from that more in my opinion - increase their strengths rather than trying to cover their weakness. Otherwise the main reason I bring Runesmiths is actually for the Rune of Wrath and Ruin, the explosion ability. Send Ungrim out ahead to get into a brawl and then drop the explosion spell on him! Besides that I think Slayers could still benefit from Runesmith passives. Forgefires reduces enemy armor in an area. And Rune of Hearth and Home (which is a passive despite the name) helps reduce their vigour loss so they can fight at full strength longer. Keeping a Runesmith alongside your Slayers as they fight would certainly help them perform better, but I don't think your spellcasting focus should be on them.

[@Crackanut1]

Gonna have to disagree with this a bit. Surprisingly enough, slayers are actually insane when in Ungrim's army. My advice would be to keep the slayer building in karak kadrin and try to get a full 20 stack of slayers in Ungrim's army as soon as you can. Karak kadrin and ungrim get upkeep reductions for slayers and there is also a trait which will reduce upkeep by an additional 20%. It's actually best to be suuuper aggressive in the early stages so you can wipe out both your starting enemy and azhag who will be your first real challenge. You will not be able to beat azhag early by using a regular army but with a full stack of slayers in ungrim's army it's actually possible and it's not even that difficult. Just make sure for skill points, you go down the unique skill line for ungrim first (first skill point goes for route marcher as per usual) this is so you can get the skill which gives slayer units %15 casualty replenishment. Dwarfs replenishment is fuckin awful so being able to regenerate damage in a turn or 2 makes a huuuuge difference. Also for your first turn, always fight that first battle cuz fighting it for some reason gives a lot more oathgold than auto resolving and then after you take that first settlement, you will have enough oathgold to get master rune of spite which you can put on ungrim to make him a mortis engine. Replace regular slayers with giant slayers when you can. It's insane what you can do with this army, even late game armies and tier 5 settlements don't stand a chance against ungrim and his slayers.