Malakai Makaisson 10 CRITICAL TIPS + 10 Perfect Turns [Total Warhammer 3 Campaign Guide]

Malakai Makaisson - 10 Tips & 10 Turns
Malakai's start is very underrated in terms of difficulty, often overshadowed by his incredible technologies that define him in the late game. In reality, there's few diplomatic options and it's up to geography, fierce military and empowering a few meaningful allies that allow Malakai's faction deliver an incredible end game that rewards your hard work.
This guide isn't the definitive way to play Malakai and more time with him might change some of these perspectives, but these tips align with what has brought me (and hopefully you!) some success. Please feel free to share your experience!
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[@ElvenPlotArmour]

PATCH UPDATE: apologies champions - the 5.1 update removed Dwarf Warriors as recruitable from the basic main building which does impact this run somewhat. I currently don't have time to rework it, but if you find a great alternative please feel free to post it below this pinned comment so others can learn from. FYI, this is why avoid using cheese and exploits (so the guides don't date) but it looks like I didn't see this one coming, so apologies champions!

[@b0z0brain]

@@ElvenPlotArmour legend total war did a slightly different opener strat and even without the warriors worked fine for me

[@morden279]

Tried this turn by turn, didn't work after the patch - got wiped, even on Normal. Look forward to seeing an update.

[@lewdog7853]

so far i have found that if we wait one the runesmith that i can stay on track with the rest of the guide. I will endevor to get that building asap tho.

[@sfdwawf]

This is roughly what I did Turn 1 Stays fairly similar with only change being getting the gyrocopter building instead of runesmith - Attack enemy starting army - Optionally attack settlement but better to save movement with malakai and push further north - Recruit Runesmith lord on Malakai and 1 Slayer lord in capital ( recruit 2 miners ) - Recruit 1 warrior on malakai Turn 2 I think you might have enough movement to attack the second settlement with Malakai's special map movement mode if not just recruit 1 more dwarven warrior on him - Attack the previous settlement with runesmith and slayer plus the 2 miners (I was able to autoresolve that fight since they didn't recruit a lord there) - Delete the miners and slayer lord once settlement is captured. If they recruit a lord in the previous settlement you can transfer some units from malakai to the runesmith lord but make sure you expend the runesmith's movement and not malakai's Turn 3 Take last settlement with Malakai and recruit 1 more dwarf warrior - Push runesmith towards last settlement Turn 4 Fly Malakai next to Hell's Pit - Use runesmith to recruit 2 gyrocopters - Start gyrocopter adventure and recruit those as well - Recruit engineer if you still have money left. Turn 5 Underway Runesmith to Hell's Pit and make sure he is close enough to reinforce - Attack Hell's Pit with both and it should be a ridiculously easy fight with 6 gyrocopters. After this feel free to turn Malakai into a gyrocopter doom stack and transfer all the other units (including gortek and felix) to the runesmith. Malakai should be able to 1v1 pretty much anyone he wants with this as long as he remains hidden in a forest and make sure you get 2 engineers in his stack to insanely buff gyrocopters. Runesmith will be responsible for defending from Throg and Malakai can finish off Azazel with like 12 gyrocopters.

[@spetsnaz9812]

Idk what it is about your videos/guides, but they’re just outright better than any other KZbinr. Clear, concise, and Straight to the point while also showing some variations. With others, I feel as though I’ve got more questions than answers after watching their videos 🤷‍♂️ Keep it up my man! Number one Total War KZbinr for me!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Appreciate the kind words. Thanks mate!

[@dudeofstuff]

Great tips. It never occurred to me to just not blitz Norsca because it's all green territory now.. but now that you mention it, it does just bring you into awareness of every crackhead in the chaos wastes. Also going south towards Drycha and Vlad... makes a lot more sense for the adventures too. thanks for the strat!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

It's alright mate. I think everyone heads west first to follow the conflict and it's not until 20 turns in you realise your objectives are the other direction 😂

[@kyubii972]

Loved this video very informative, didn't feel overly long. Strong tips which help us get a nice chunk of territory and help us understand the threats we face, thank you!

[@ThePastaSawce]

You are so right about all the chaos people in the north coming for you lol In my first Malakai campaign I did expand into norsca first killing trogg and then keeping an NA with Wulf. I then made a head way to the north cause the new nurgle guy declared war on me, silly demon lol Which I then used his territory to make a defensive alliance with Malus to keep the other chaos in check. That worked out long enough for me to secure norsca, take out azazle and expand to the north of the blasted lands. Once malus dropped our treaty I went and showed him why that was a bad move lol Then after I got done spanking him I moved on to the east to start fighting Archeon. All the while beating back Grimgore and slowly confederating all the dwarves under my banner. Currently I have beaten all the campaign requirements but I'm keeping the campaign going cause I want to 100% the grudge book lol Next time I do a Malakai campaign I am going to take this video advice into consideration lol

[@shamanahaboolist]

Using the slayer Lord as an emergency Lord to battle to the death is something I didn't think of. Nice tip thanks!

[@houlinfan4140]

Malikai really makes the other dwarf factions unplayable, his mechanics are just too good, to dig in ability on organ gun and flame canon just make them sooo much better, their biggest problem was short range and digging in fixes that, hopefully there will be a mod where all the dwarf factions get access to those artillery upgrades.

[@garrettmccullough2249]

I'd say obsolete is a better word than unplayable. They all benefited from the Malakai changes but they just aren't exciting and lack the tools Malakai brings to the table.

[@todhold2673]

20:23, Correct me if i'm wrong but you can't keep Malakai in ambush mode if you're going to recruit from the Spirit of Grungni. It'll automatically switch him to encampment. I think this is the second time in the guide that this was done.

[@DragonsAnvil]

Great video mate! The tips at the beginning are ones I’ll definitely keep in mind in my upcoming Malakai campaign! Really interesting to see the differences between your video and that of Battlesey’s suggested meta start (which he live streamed). I like there good campaign start videos but I do usually mess up campaigns when left to my own devices 😂😅

[@NewGuy2534]

For me, I don't see myself as surrounded by enemies, rather being in a target-rich environment!!!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

That's the Slayer way!

[@jeffreylebowski6457]

My first two goes with Malakai (on VH campaign difficulty) I really struggled, as I managed to take all of Norsca but then had to deal with all of the Dark Elves, Daniel, Archaon, Tamurkhan and Astragoth simultaneously. I'm doing it again on Hard difficulty, and having a much easier time of it. But maybe I'll try your strat on VH again

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Mate... Your fist campaign was the same as mine and led me to the conclusions presented here haha. I think 50% of players will take the hard path like we did the first time round!

[@kyubii972]

You mention Imrik briefly in this. I think you may already have a video on him, but if possible I'd love a newer one. His fantasy seems so amazing and yet no matter how many times my partner or myself attempt a game with him, it ends quite badly. Truly a challenging start location from what I have seen.

[@foundsomecashhere]

this may not be the way you want to play him, but if you’re really struggling just beeline Imrik to the Elf donut and set up there.

[@PenguinWithInternetAccess]

I was very curious about your perfect pathing for Malakai, and yeah considering how useless the minor factions in Kislev are taking their land is not a bad idea lol. I feel like Throt is quite a problem if I don't focus him as soon as possible though

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Absolutely not the only way to tackle this campaign, but I aim to provide a player of any experience a stable position which allows them the options of 'their' style the time and space they need. This is simply one of the harder starts I've had to write because (contrary to the internet) it is a very relentless campaign. Honestly, I love strategy games when they hit a "no good outcome, just the one that costs you the least" - nothing is ever perfect and you're always thinking.

[@zenmastakilla]

Amazing guide, thank you!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

No problem!

[@dux9408]

I just love your videos mate!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Thanks mate!

[@Bejonkerss]

I love your vids! Thank you

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Appreciate it mate. Thanks

[@jeffbunnell9961]

I made best buds with kostaltyn. After I too out Moulder and Azazel I had to deal with Throgg and I was I figured Throgg was far more of a threat.

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Great play!

[@captainwaffles8114]

I tried to follow the steps, I still don’t understand how you manage to get 3 slots to hire when you didn’t build barracks. Confused😢

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Sorry mate, I've left a pinned comment - CA changed the game on me. Normally I stay away from anything that might get nerfed due to being OP, this one I didn't see coming! The overall spirit of the guide is in the same vein but will need a rework to make it work on legendary. Good luck!

[@4Ksa4Ever]

Love your Videos I really think you should start streaming in youtube LOTW have left a big gap in the community for Legendary campaign lovers you can fill that ezzy

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Big shoes to fill and appreciate the encouragement

[@GarrettMedina09]

honestly, i think the chaos dwarves are the hardest faction. but once theyre up and running, theyre so OP

[@RichardTruth123]

Awesome stuff

[@tomasvarga7993]

Looking at covering image of this video, maybe one question here. Do anybody find use of short range Thunderers? I use Irondrakes for heavy damage and short range role. Not so short in case of grudge settlers variant. 😅

[@grishnak6162]

SHORT!?

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

You stole my response!!!! IN THE BOOK YOU GO!

[@CursingCoolGuy]

man..idk if its just me being really slow or something... but this really threw me off multiple times having to rewing etc ended up closing the game before turn 8 (i did something different to what is wrote, said and shown apparently and throt anmbushed my small army) too much cross referencing though... the writing, what you are verbally saying and what you are doing on screen are sometimes just not matching up or completing overlooking something, for example 17 mins you verbally say and show on screen you hiring 2 dwarfs, but list to hire 3, then the next you say to hire 3 dwarf warrior and 1 pirate but list to hire 2. there are alot of other examples i could give, but this comment is long enough, i am happy others found this helpful, i hope for a more clear guide one day. appreciate the effort and i love playing malakai

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Hey this was really well written and constructive criticism. You'll notice this was for more choppy than my usual walkthroughs and the reason simply is: many more things can happen and it's a very dynamic campaign - it's difficult to quantify the most important "could happen" scenarios without going overboard but maybe this waklthrough wasn't succinct enough so it's something I'll be more careful. As for the text not matching, this was me reigning back on the recruitment if it wasn't needed to save the player some upkeep revenue. The crux of this is around T4-T8 to not expose you to Throt but after taking his capital you have him on the ropes and can underpass safely back to your territory.

[@thekratomchannel]

They must have done an update because I can only get miners as a starting unit. This hurts when Throgg invades.

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Sorry mate, it did get patched. I really didn't see this nerf coming and I tend to avoid tactics I think will get patched. Hope your campaign recovers ok! :(

[@thekratomchannel]

@@ElvenPlotArmour teaming up with the ice queen was great and then for whatever reason Throgg didn’t give a hoot about me this play through. Nurgle just took him out actually and he never made war against me so, worked out. Thanks for the response! You got the best channel on high level game tactics btw. 💪

[@andreasaust1510]

Is there a way to see all active bonuses of my army (not just those coming from the lord) ? For example, I have 5 heroes in my army and some of them also give things like ambush defense chance. But when I click on my lord and go to campaign effects I can only see those coming from him. I have to say I generally find it very hard to keep track of all bonuses and I never know when I hit the caps - for example replenishment cap of 50%. Next to the Lord Portrait on the campaign map I I can only see the effects from agent actions (replenishment, training, movement, scavenging) but this is not all bonuses added up - just those from agent actions. Am I missing something or is it really so confusing? Thanks.

[@sherkhead9638]

Does only Mali get grape shot for cannons??

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Yeah. Tbf obtaining and utilizing that doomstack is more difficult and less flexible and than the internet makes out imho. Don't let that get in the way of a good meme though 😉

[@lewdog7853]

apologies, i am 420'd and and just realized i got a lord and not a smith, lol.

[@steakdriven]

Never enjoyed dwarves before Malakai!!!!!

[@bacchus8081]

Same! I always hated their old grudge mechanic, plus you end up chasing greenskins through mountain underways for ages which got real old real quick. Malakai has non of those problems. His instant recruitment options (between RoR's, Grudge settlers and adventure units) is also crazy strong and a big part of my defense during his campaign. Invading enemy lord? Pop out a Lord with 3 cheap RoR's and some of the worse grudge settler units, and maybe a flame tank or so (with no recruit cost

[@lucozademan999]

Complete nube here. So i was playing Thorgrims campaign. When i am fighting chaos dwarfs we have 100% choas corruption, in the real time battles , my units will litering just start dieing without even fighting. Is this a bug? Seems silly attrition occurs during an actual battle. Not just attrition but will liter wipe my army who will auto disintegrate. If its not a bug how on earth are you meant to fight in a proving with 100% choas curruption. Any help would be great!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Hey what your'e dealing with is attrition. Corruption is typically what causes it but swamps and icy weather can also cause it. To avoid use Encamp stance - this halves your movement but ensures your soldiers are encamped and won't freeze/die. you can also globally recruit (typically at twice the time and cost). Underway stance also prevents attrition, but you can't retreat, meaning if you get attacked you'll lose your army on a single loss instead of 2 losses. If you need battlefield advise check out my dwarf guides. Good luck and feel free to join our discord to share your exploits!

[@lucozademan999]

Ahh okay, so attrition will apply when I am actually fighting the battle as well. So basically have to use the other stances if you are getting attacked , coz obviously if you are in a battle and your units are randomly dying it's pretty hard to win haha. Cheers though!

[@meegx7231]

worked till turn 7 then 2 stacks skaven showed up & destroyed the 2. army

[@SkavenDan-TotalWar]

Kislev

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Kislev!

[@b0z0brain]

Why can he hire warriors on turn 3 and i cant? only miners

[@protomous]

patch 5.1 boinked it I fear

[@b0z0brain]

@@protomous did the same strat with just miners and worked fine. Bit harder but doable

[@mrmr446]

Tried the campaign a few times and Boris always survives, I find the rest of Kislev useful allies and milk them for funds by selling settlements to them.

[@krzysztofkalinowski2998]

13:00

[@benyblancofrbx]

Come on people... let's get this man to 50k!! PS If it hasn't been said... Thank you for all the hard working you're putting into your content. For the Algorithm!! 🤖👌

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Haha appreciate it mate. Many thanks!

[@YukalayleeGames]

Very interesting strategy I always tend to over expand and get caught too thin so I'll give this a go

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Good luck. It's very easy to do in this campaign

[@Braindance98]

Hm, for some reason I just can’t hire warriors, maybe they changed starting buildings in one of the starting provinces, could only get 1 per turn from Spirit

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Apologies (although not my fault) CA patched Dwarf Warriors to need a barracks in the latest patch. Regarding recruit slots, ensure Malakai is also in the necessary province and which is using the +1 recruit edict.

[@tomasvarga7993]

Great guide as always. One thing what I definitely recommend to add/change is to build engineering building as soon as possible. Gyrocopters/bombers are awesome, especially against early armies. In the most cases you need just to hide your lord and hero units to forest for example, deal with few units what can actually fight them first and rest of enemies will be just sitting ducks. On the other side it will become quite boring after some time, so I recommend different army compositions for your other armies. My late game Malakai army consist of him, 4x Engineers, 3x Thunderbarges, 4x Gyrobombers, 4x Gyrocopters and 4x Gyrocopters torpedos (Grudge settlers). For me unbeatable even for armies with lot of flyers and flying monsters, but in such cases it require lot of micro.

[@andrzejgogoek9402]

I did exacly this later on i have one standart army and secend supporting with mostly gyrobombers/barges/copters army. This combo was undefeted by any enemies that try from gobbos to all chaos factions.

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Absolutely agree with this. Around turn 10 I build the Engineer building and then Gyrocopters and Engineer start rolling out then. Warriors early on allow for some extra savings.

[@Itsdlu]

As soon as I was able to make a gyrobomber doomstack, I just steamrolled the campaign like nothing.

[@quickpawmaud]

Could you make one of these videos for Belegar Ironhammer? I know he is not new and did not get really any direct changes from the Dwarf update but man is his campaign the hardest of the Dwarfs by far.

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

Great guide! I never thought of attacking Kostaltyn, will do that in my campaign if he isn't allied with Katerine

[@gamingsavior2832]

Malikai is hard but uber in late game. Is he the best dwarf now?

[@Black_Coding]

One can almost feel the vertigo of the dwarfs getting into a flying vehicle that rises more than 2.5 meters above the ground 😨

[@lewdog7853]

wierd, i was able to recuit a runelord w/o a building. Did i get a glich bug? I am now back on track with your video.

[@lewdog7853]

i know now that the patch messed up the video, however where am i sapose to get a quaraler from? reference turn 5.

[@Nethingispossible145]

I don’t feel like the runesmiths provides enough value to prioritize building it first versus building the engineer building so you can get engineers and the almighty gyrocopters that basically make norsca helpless against you in the early game

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Getting levels on heroes is always a solid idea, but you do make a very good point about the matchup vs Norsca. Gyrocoptres are a bit expensive for those early turns but should absolutely be a goal for Malakai to get and they perform very well as you mentioned. Strong heroes with good levels contribute a lot to the campaign - but this was an early acess version where Dwarf Warriors could be hired without a barracks so this made getting heroes early much easier.

[@steakdriven]

Where are you getting the cash to keep hiring 3 dwarf warriors by turn 8?

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

I'd have to look back to check, sorry. Quite possibly a dilemma or "final army" / revolt provided some extra cash. Around this time several things can happen. More enemies mean more loot, but if those enemies are Skaven you could get ambushed. Regardless, without his capital, Throt is on borrowed time and you should have enough units to defend him in time to defend against Throt. Sorry if this walkthrough has caused any headaches! Was one of the hardest ones in terms of the dynamic start.

[@lgamradt]

I'd actually suggest not building anything on the thunderbarge at turn 4 and wait for the cargo racks upgrade. You will trade away a little early game power for a huge early mid-late game, since your're able to upgrade much earlier/faster and get some really significant power spikes when it matters. Also, turn 1 build tinkers den in kraka drak for gyrocopters, they are insanely op early game (even to late game with upgrades), you can recruit a bunch before declaring war on Clan Moulder and further with your second army. That way you'll balance out the early game 'missing' power from waiting for the cargo racks upgrade!

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Simply put, I feel we value the same units but just the order to get them. I'd had people saying they'd struggled with Moulder so having a run that easily met that with the upkeep of warriors seemed like the most flexible setup for the most players. Absolutely agree with the power of engineers and big thanks for sharing your experience. Nice strat.

[@lgamradt]

@@ElvenPlotArmour Thanks to you man, really appreciate your videos, they are always so informative and show me some alternative ways of going through a campaign, massively enhancing the experience! I also wanted to add that malakais skill 'architect' reduces the cost of the upgrades by 20%, making the route I proposed even more efficient, if you're willing to sacrifice the flexibility in the beginning ;)

[@steakdriven]

Hmm I'm on 10 and Throgg still hasn't attacked me. Weird for Legendary.

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

It'll come haha

[@Tauntauntauntaun]

It depends on what Wulfrik does in my experience: if they start fighting each other Throgg will usually delay picking a fight with you.

[@shrillcrayfish6168]

I'm maybe intermediate I go left. Then get hit by the rats. And them the chaos dwarfs

[@ElvenPlotArmour]

Can't argue with results mate.

[@shrillcrayfish6168]

@ElvenPlotArmour not at all haha. Iv taken to running and takeing 8 peaks and leaving the north to burn haha

[@Turnoutburndown]

Thanks yo, I have been having a spot of trouble with this campaign. The next one will be my fourth go at it!

[@crackawhack2868]

Love it! Just recently transitioned to WH3 and glad to see *avoid Grimgor* is still valid life saving advice 😂

[@execalibur4293]

Great video as usual! How much money do i need to send your way to have you do a campaign guide for Bretonnia?

[@jeethechamp7458]

A Nargle unit composition video would be helpful

[@magnuskno]

Gotta disagree hard here on where to expand. Killing off all Norsca is the way to go to create a stable base empire from where to expand east afterwards. Generally the factions in the Chaos Wastes up north will not declare war on you if you are constantly in war with another faction already and the Chaos Dwarves in the east will leave you in peace long enough to mop up most of Norsca. I've done two campaigns as Malakai already and both times I immediatly went after Throt after finishing off the starting faction, then Azazel, then Throgg. That is also enough time to finish the first adventure mid-conquest of all of Norsca. Afterwards just clean-up in Norsca, then expand eastward to do more adventures and get the campaign finished.

[@irsyadamir4166]

Lol in legendary, everyone is very aggresive Both time during my Malakai campaign, hashut always threaten with his stack and after clearing the norsca, chaos start raining down 💀

[@Manisteefly]

I disagree. On L/VH the Norscan, Chaos, and dark elf factions will almost always declare war on you if you expand west. I’ve played multiple campaigns and holding a defensive front while expanding to the east (possibly saving Boris Ursus if you can) is the way to go.

[@magnuskno]

@@Manisteefly True,I don't play on legendary. Which actually makes me wonder... how useful are these guides for the "perfect 10 turns" to a more casual player? If they are only aimed at people playing legendary difficulty, aren't you limiting your audience by this to a select few? I'm not sure what the numbers are regarding at which difficulty most people play the game.

[@windflier1684]

''Generally the factions up north will not declare war on you'' lol what kind of alien version of wh3 were you play on, those north chaos factions ALWAYS declare war on you

[@edwilliams5417]

​@@magnuskno Maybe just get good and play legendary. It's a more fun challenge