This Total War: Warhammer 2 Beginners Guide will help you analyze what is going on in the game. We will start by looking at the types of units in the game and what they do!
For more help on Total War: Warhammer 2, you can check out our Lords and Heroes Guide, Units Guide, and Errors and Fixes Guide.
Total War: Warhammer 2 Beginners Guide
The new iteration of the Total War series is a very hard game to grasp if you are new to the series. There are a lot of various intricacies that define the outcome of every single game.
This Warhammer 2 Beginners Guide will give you a basic overview of how you can be better at the game and get off and running on your way to improvement.
Units
The Lord is one of the most important figures on the battlefield. The primary role of the Lord is to lead the army.
Try to protect them as much as they can so they can lead the army. The role is also very diverse and can range from a Wizard to a large hulking monster.
The Hero is also a diverse character like the Lord. They can be better at 1v1 duels or fighting in a crowd of enemies.
The melee heroes are probably the most efficient ones. The Wizard needs to be controlled in a different way than the others.
Their primary weapon is the magic which they use to deal damage. Try to protect them as the will lose in a physical confrontation!
Melee Infantry are great against all kind of other infantries but are vulnerable to Monsters and Cavalry.
Anti-Large Infantry are usually used for tearing down enemy cavalry, monsters, and other unconventional units. They are countered by melee forces.
Missile Infantries are used to deal damage to all kinds of enemies at range. They can be very versatile and they should be protected from melee attacks.
In close-range battles, these infantries are almost useless so make sure that you keep them hidden behind a wall of other units.
Cavalry is the fluid moving parts of your army. Try to use them to charge enemies that are vulnerable to melee combat.
Make sure that you don’t attack spearmen with cavalry as they are almost immune to it.
Monsters are also very versatile and can range from melee monsters to highflying crushers. In close combat, monsters can cause a quite a lot of damage.
However, spearmen and artillery can really give a tough time to these diverse creatures so make sure you keep them away from spears and take cover with nearby trees when the enemy is raining down cannon balls and ballista balls on you.
Artillery should be quite self-explanatory. They deal damage in huge chunks using mechanical weaponry. It cannot defend itself so you need a few units around it. Remember that spells can also be used to destroy Artillery.
Spearmen basically have the task of countering large units such as monsters, cavalry and war machines.
Against such units, spearmen don’t only nullify the bonuses these units get for each successful hit rather they get bonus melee attack and bonus weapon damage against them.
Other than the main units, there are some minor units which include flying units, skirmish cavalry, beasts and war machines.
Damage Types
The four damage type in Total War: Warhammer 2 are;
- Regular damage
- Armor-piercing damage
- Fire damage
- Magical damage
Regular damage is the most common damage type in Warhammer 2 and it’s what the most weapons deal.
Though armor and physical resistance reduces the damage dealt, the reduced damage has a maximum threshold of 1.
Armor-piercing damage, on the other hand, ignores all kinds of armor and no matter how powerful your armor is, the weapons with armor-piercing damage are able to penetrate that armor to a certain extent.
With Fire damage, you can counter units which are susceptible to fire like tree men.
Magical damage can be extremely effective against units which have no magical resistance as physical resistance is useless against this type of damage.
Units can either have magical damage or regular damage in a specific ratio with armor-piercing damage while fire damage can be layered over these various damage type and it can affect the overall damage depending on whether you are resistant or vulnerable to fire damage.
Spells
There are three categories of spells in Total War: Warhammer 2:
- Buffs
- Debuffs
- Damage Spells
The buffs and the debuffs can either have a positive or negative effect depending on the target.
What’s worth mentioning here is that debuffs that deal zero damage cannot be avoided with magical resistance.
The damage spells are especially useful against physical resistance as they deal magical damage (fire damage or armor-piercing damage may be layered over it).
The three primary classes of spells are subdivided into 7 types namely, direct single target, direct area of effect, projectiles, mirages, explosions, winds and vortexes.
The Unit Information Panel
The Unit Information Panel contains a lot of useful information. Try to keep an eye on it at all times and utilize it to your advantage. Try to understand all of the things in that to get a better understanding of the game.
The health hit points are quite self-explanatory. They usually have self-regeneration and can be healed by spells.
The armor also serves a similar purpose. Leadership is a measure of the psychological strength. Having low Leadership may mean that your units start retreating.
Units beings close to each other, encouragement aura shared by lords and heroes are two of the simplest ways you can improve the leadership of your units.
Melee attack determines the amount of damage you will do in each melee attack and the Melee defense determines the chance of dodging a melee attack.
The weapon strength is a measure of the damage of your primary weapon. It is split into base damage and armor piercing damage. The charge bonus determines the amount of extra damage your unit can do when they charge into enemies.
Before we move on, it is important to remember that you can get additional information about each stat by hovering your mouse over the stat.
Battle Tips and Tricks
Usually, the unit with the better stats will win unless another unit interferes. However, there is a small chance that the stronger unit loses due to the RNG.
When you select a unit of yours and hover over an enemy, you can compare the two units. The green tabs represent areas where your units are stronger and the red tabs represent weaknesses.
Cost is a good indicator of how strong a unit is. Try to utilize your units to counter the enemy’s units whom you know you can beat.
Try to divide your army into parts. The frontline should be in the center to protect your back lines. Have two flanks to protect from the sides.
Have your cavalry in the center behind the frontline and lastly, have the archers and the other range units towards the far back.
Fatigue can be a decisive factor in the battles that you fight. So, make sure that you allow your units to rest for at least a minute in order to avoid them getting fatigued. You can do this by letting them stand still or walk.
