The empire offers one great advantage for noobs: readability. If you're new, all these witch elves, changebringers and Tzaangors can be pretty overwhelming. But everybody knows what swordsmen and archers are supposed to do. Maybe you shouldn't expect to win your campaign, but you can expect to learn the basics of the game.
First timer plays Karl Franz and claims the starting province: "Ah this is incredibly easy" Meanwhile, Kazhrak, Festus, Vlad, Azhag, and Drycha: "Confident, we like that"
@notoffensivenpc8400 for me, Kemmler is always a hit or miss. But when he moves into the Empire I just quickly push him back to the fort. Truly no rest for the Empire
Putting Kairos's campaign on here must truly be a Tzeentchian scheme to torture new players, because even on moderate-to-easy difficulties the Tzeentch campaign is one of the hardest in Total War. Complicated economy management, wars on multiple fronts, and the practical inability to use diplomacy makes this a wicked challenge of a campaign. I'd advise newer players to stay away
Its also very DLC dependent. Kairos without the marauders you get from champions of chaos is truly ridiculous, Kairos with cheap but usable melee inf before tier 3 / skirmish cav is hard but manageable
Trying to call any of the Warhammer campaigns "hardest in total war" is laughable. The hardest Warhammer campaigns are like average campaigns in most historical games. The legendary lord and hero mechanics are so poorly balanced you can have a legendary lord as a one man army when there isn't even anything slightly comparable in other total war games.
@@simpicusmaximusmfs havent tried totalwar:atilla and fighting the Huns, but you cant ignore the fact fhat Kairos IE is hard, try that shit in Legendary and tell me how you fared 😂😂😂
@@JarmamStuff Oxyotl is going to end any new player trying that campaign his ass rolls up with strong forces very quickly and your often not even done getting that first enemy dealt with when he shows up.
Recommending Kairos is a strange choice if you ask me. In my experience this is one of the more challenging starts currently in the game. You have three nearby factions that will all declare war on you sooner rather than later, which means you very easily end up in a situation where you're getting pummeled from all sides. And even when you figure out how to optimize the start the hurdle of beating Oxy is one of the toughest early rival battles. Not to mention you pretty much need the warriors of chaos DLC for the faction to be good, you're completely dependant on being adept at using magic, Tzeentch's eco situation is a nightmare for a new player, and you won't learn anything about playing with diplomacy or trading. My first thought after Tyrion and a Lizard (I would personally pick Kroq'Gar) would be Malekith. You have a bunch of friends around and a fairly isolated position, Dreadswords have been buffed to be very reliable and Dark Shards are great and the more advanced army has great variety, and both your early rivals (Valkia and Grombrindal) aren't overly aggressive or super strong offensively but they offer a decent challenge when it comes to killing them off.
oh brother what game have you been playing? malekith is one of the worst starting locations in the game. yes grommbindal is easy to roll over considering early ap ranged is like the dark elves main strength but after that you either have taurox and cylostra tearing up the south and in my playthroughs Valkia routinely obliterates the dark elves to the NE. Sigvald also often becomes quite a problem and can easily take out what little remains of your dark elf brethren. i do agree Kairos is a very odd choice by Zerk.
I think it is more focused in easy diff. for beginners? Than Kairos position could be okay? I Just played him once and it was on Legendary - He was not the hardest but by far not the easiest. Truly a weird choice
Totally agree with you about Kairos. Kairos is definitely a hard one. When you want to play an Chaos Faction as an new player i would rather chose Azazael (Kislev will not instantly declare war on you) or Be'lakor, because His start Position is kinda good + with these two you can learn Hammer & anvil tactics because of the gifts of slaanesh. I would recommend to play Chaos Warriors or Kislev after Gor-Rok or Tyrion, because in my opinion, you learn with Gor-Rok and Tyrion how to manage your front line in an beginner-friendly environment
True. Although the video "Why you suck with Tzeentch" by Blake's Takes helps a lot. This is doubly frustrating since the other Tzeentch faction literally can't lose the game unless you actively try for it.
Kairos is very much so not an easy campaign unless you're already really good at utilising your spells and unit positioning. Oxyotl will shred you if you aren't paying attention and aware of how to handle him
Destroy the nurgle faction, get a non aggression pact with the Slaaneshi one, rush force peace while you fight Teclis and also grab the -3 changing of ways cooldown from Kairos' skill line. After you have those, it's literally impossible to lose because you can choose who can declare war on you or not
VERY TRUE, your tzeench ally is weak AF, the slaanesh faction to your right will attack you no matter what, Oxyotl will flood you with his skinktide, Teclis at the north might be weak early but will be a constant threat anyways. I dont know if ita better bcuz of the changeling dlc but last time i played i had a hard time even in Hard difficulty 😅
I kinda disagree with Grand Cathay not having a solid frontline. In my experience, Jade Warriors hold pretty well. I think Grand Cathay's armies are less forgiving if you're not learning to utilise the Harmony mechanic, rather than the frontline being bad at all
Yes, but jade warriors can crack under anti-infantry units, as do normal empire units. Stronger frontlines are much better at protectin against anti-infantry
@@NotInterXX Oh, definitely. But that's the case for most frontline infantry. Anti Infantry will chew through most frontlines anyway. But overall, I've found they still hold quite well even compared to High Elf Spearmen (Even costing the same, having more health, and being armoured). Yes, they're not the same level as Chaos Warriors or Dwarf Warriors in terms of defence or holding, but they're definitely a strong and reliable Frontline Infantry compared to most in my opinion. The argument I was making was that Grand Cathay's frontline is solid and forgiving, but a better point to make for Grand Cathay being less beginner friendly is that it also relies on specific mechanics in battle (Harmony and keeping units standing still to get buffs for example).
@@Dalinks337 cathays front line does not hold long and does not have great leadership. they will route pretty fast and they do not have a ton of armor.
@@prestonvarner611 I agree that they don't have a lot of leadership - not a bad amount but nothing to write home about. But I would say their armour is pretty substantial. They have the staying power, but needs the mechanics of the army to be utilised, which was my point before - The mechanics make the army less beginner friendly, not the frontline.
Kairos definitely not. His starting position is literal hell. If you want to make the most out of it you need to be experienced and kill Teclis first and just ignore the South Pole in the early game. Chaos Dwarfs I would also disagree because they have complicated faction mechanics that no other faction has that can be overwhelming for a new player. Also if you are playing it wrong it will be punishing for you on the campaign map. Not enough gold or armaments. Also, you need to be constantly aggressive as Chorfs to gain labour. That is the biggest problem for the new players as far as I've seen. Many new players tend to play rather defensively and safe (which isn't good tbh) but going Chorfs is like throwing someone to the water to learn how to swim.
I don't know about chaos dwarfs as a beginner faction... They're very fun and diverse, but you need an understanding of what the 'good' units are worth before you produce them, you'll have to learn how to manage mines and factories, and you're always surrounded by enemies. And the slave frontline is not forgiving either, they run away very quick. Perhaps they're a good try for a second campaign?
I'd disagree. With the hellforge they get some nuts bonuses to units and anything on their roster can be made into a powerhouse. Balancing the economy I think will be the most difficult part for new players. And the nature of the unit caps means you not only can use a variety of units, you'll be forced to.
@@gir1573 I'm a vet of the game and felt the same way when I picked them up, but it's really not bad. Basically a blend of Cathay, Dark elves and dwarves
@@sprintstothebathroomdaily2429 When the description is a bland of several different races it probably is that bad, we are discussing beginner friendly, Chaos dwarfs are not beginner friendly as they have a ton of advanced mechanics and rely on weak chaff to frontline.
The last time I played chaos dwarves I get waaagh form Grimgor in the early game. Not much I can do with the starting army when he come at me with two 40 stack
That Kislev and Tzinch recommendations are very weird ones. These are one the hardest campaigns! Chaos dwarfs are just too complicated and overloaded with mechanics. So definitely not for the beginners. Here is my top 5 noob friendly factions list. 5. Beastmen. Very agrissive and straightforward army. The main selling point of beastmen is that you don't have much to manage. Their units are totally free, they don't have public order issues at all and they don't even need to engage in diplomacy. Just roll around, burn down everything and have fun! Pick Taurox or Malagor they are very powerful legendary lords. 4. Dwarfs. This is the opposite side. Dawi army is very tough and defensive: their infantry can hold the lines while missiles and artillery blast the SHEISSE out of your enemies. Low growth is a problem but economy is one the best. Choose Thorek or Grombrindal as your legendary lords and start completing the grudges! 3. Lizardmen. They have a strong versitile roster: great infantry, lots of flying units, skirmishes as well, some cavalry and a huge variety of large DINOSAURS. Lords and heroes are amazing too. Economy and growth are poor tho. If you are a big fan of DINOSAURS than play Kroq-Gar or Gor-Rok. 2. High Elves. Heavy missile focused faction but infantry, cavalry and monsters are very solid as well. Thier influence mechanics allows to recruit a very powerful lords and heroes with unique traits which can buff the whole faction. Units are kinda expensive but economy is amazing, you get a huge income from trade. Tirion and Alariel are absolute powerhouses especially with the sword of Khaine. 1. Greenskins. They don't have as much armor and leadership as the dwarfs, their missiles are not as great as high elves and skaven, their cavalry isn't as strong as French, their artillery isn't as destructive as Empire's but their versatility, their tactical performance are truly DA BEST. Because they are cruel but cunning and cunning but cruel. Their units are cheap, have some handy scrap upgrades and economy is surprisingly good for a faction that can't trade at all. WAAAAGH is very helpful both in battle and on the map as you get a factionwide buffs for trophies. If you want to paint the world in green than Grom and Wurrzag are your boys.
Disagree on Beastmen and Dwarves, Beastmen aren't really beginner friendly for the exact reasons you have listed and that they're not that forgiving in the actual battles, they're forgiving on the campaign map but not in the battles themselves, and Dwarves don't have the flexibility, and variety for beginners to really learn the basics of the game and as Zerk said, they are too forgiving, the other three I agree with
Yeah, one of his criteria was that the faction should utilize most if not all the core Total War mechanics that are common to most races. As you say, Beastmen have no diplomacy, little economy / recruitment costs to manage, no public order issues, and so on. Any one of those would rule them out by that definition of as broad a learning experience as possible.
Recommending Kairos Fateweaver for new players is absolutely insane. Out of all the Chaos Lords, Kairos is by far the most complex character, starting in a very rough position that forces you to deal with Teclis early on in your campaign, no easy task for any new player. On top of this there are many complex campaign mechanics such as changing of ways, winds of magic manipulation and unique build trees different from most other factions. The fact that you would recommend his campaign to new players makes me question your understanding of the game as a whole, that's how absurd it is. I love Kairos, his campaign is very thematic and chaotic, but I wouldn't recommend Kairos for anyone who haven't already completed a few campaigns.
Another reason Empire, Dawi or Cathay aren't good for beginners is the understanding of how line of sight works, formations, and positioning to effectively field gunpowder units will be too much for a beginner to learn. Elf archers don't have that problem so beginners can focus on other parts of the battle.
This, 100%. I really struggled to get good at TWW and even dropped it for a long while, because a lot of experts will put gunpowder units in top-tier positions when it comes to value for the price, but they are incredibly hard to use for a new player that doesn't know how to create firing lanes. The High Elf campaign was the first one that I ever beat, and started to make me feel like I might be able to figure the game out.
Cathay has plenty of powerful archer units though, at multiple tiers too. Jade crossbows are available very early, and celestial crossbows are very powerful in the endgame. They only have two gunpowder infantry units, one of them has very short range and the other is a sniper, so LOS isn't that much of an issue. Their roster is flexible enough that a new player can try gunpowder infantry without really relying on them.
I have to disagree with Cathay. It was my first and having 0 total war experience. I was hooked and now I have 1k hours and have done at least every short victory. I even beat the realms of chaos several times. It’s good because it helps you understand frontline, how anti infantry works and most importantly for all order factions.. how gunpowder units work. They also have some decent spells including healing.
The Kairos campaign is brutal. I wanted to play Tzeentch, but was struggling hard to get back quickly enough to defend against Oxy, after taking out Slaanesh. All those regions are like 6 turns away from your capital, and by the time you reach the eastern edge, Oxy declares war on you. I know it can be done, but it is quite challenging. I plan on coming back to it, but am playing Belakor at the moment. Way easier, and i can still play with Tzeentch units and a better front line.
Saw a post about a stategy for the early game, of not putting any money into your starting province, as oxy will hit it hard, and instead investing in the slaanesh province first, as its more secure.
What I do with kairos is ignore the slaanesh faction, you can get easy non aggression by selling them a settlement so they won't attack you. Either the last nurgle one you take or by changing ways one of their settlements to yourself and selling it back, or selling them the last nurgle settlement and then changing that back to yourself. Go back and wipe them out with a second army after dealing with teclis and oxy. Obviously a new player isn't going to do this but just a suggestion. You can also use this settlement selling trick to vassalize factions who would otherwise hate you which is fun fun.
To be honest, Kairos is the symbol of suffering first and happiness later. Kairos' starting position is a disaster on Very Hard (I'm not sure if playing on Easy - Normal things would be different). A little bit of my experience when playing Kairos, there are 4 main problems I have to solve in the first 10 - 20 turns. Nurgle and Slaanesh Faction from the east, Oxyotl from the west and Teclis from the north. If you decide to take over the entire Nurgle Faction, Teclis will clear the Tzeentch Faction and declare war on you, at this point Teclis will have a full stack on your sea/land and you will have a tough battle(1). After the battle, you will have to head to the capital of Teclis and deal with the garrison accompanied by more than half a stack of newly recruited troops, this siege is almost impossible unless you make the most out of Kairos (2). (Tzeentch's army at the beginning of the game is a failure when it comes to sieges). After that battle, disaster will await you in your capital, as you see Oxyotl has taken care of your allies in the west and is heading towards your capital with 2 full stacks. And if you don't do diplomacy first, Slaanesh Faction will also declare war on you at the same time and advance from the east (3). Welp, at least that was my first experience with Kairos. On my second playthrough, I tried a new strategy. After conquering the second territory of Nurgle(The one located next to the sea), I signed a temporary peace with Nurgle, earned some gold from it and immediately headed to the capital of Teclis. At this time, Teclis's main army will be busy dealing with the Tzeentch Faction, so it will be unable to defend the capital. After capturing the unguarded capital, your job is to defeat Teclis's main army and return to your capital. Prepare for the slowly approaching Oxyotl. (Also remember to sign a non-aggression pact with Slaanesh, in addition the remaining territory of Nurgle will also be a buffer zone to stop Slaanesh while you are dealing with Oxyotl.) Hope It will help someone in need. If you have a better strategy, feel free to correct me xd.
I’m currently playing a kairos campaign myself, and I didn’t find it to bad tbh. Dunno if I got super lucky that oxyotl called in tiqtaqto into the war instead of the slann or kroqgar though
If you want to learn the basics of total war, I feel Chaos Dwarfs are a horrible choice. Their economy is a lot more management than any other faction and their military recruitment works different to almost every faction as well. Hella strange pick
Few wierd recomendations imo, Kairos is a bit wierd as another poster mentioned. but tbh i think Lizardmen is also wierd with the criteria that you put out because they have quite a non-standard army.
My first campaign was Ikit Claw, I don't regret it, and playing Skaven has taught me that routing isn't the end, and monsters are very versatile, however no flying and the only "cav" is war machines and the rat hounds, it was a riot and loved every second of it. From using the Warpstone for nukes, to embedding it with the Engineers, but the empire has taught me the importance of using heroes and imbedding them into armies and not just a lord and a doom stack of Poison Wind Mortars, a new goal for a new campaign.
Faction that helped me learn best on how to play is tomb kings. They have a balanced roster with alot of chaff, mix of magic, chariots, constructs, artillery, and some cavalry. They have some of everything and if you lose, can rebuild army fairly quickly. Can do a bit of everything.
Maybe a bit too heavy on the battle focus. I'd say Katarin and Kairos would be a massive issue for a new player in terms of wars they get in quite early. You take Fort Jakova as Katarin and you border Azhag and Drycha on what, turn 2-3? It will heavily depend on the player if they get into one war there or two. Drycha is a nightmare to fight on the battlefield. Throt will declare war by turn 10 I guess as well. Kairos needs to rush back to defend vs Oxyotl and Teclis after securing the east flank. When it comes to their campaign situation, these two factions (Kaarin and Kairos) are likely in the top 10 most difficult. Which is why I love them but for a beginner no way I'd recommend them. Cathay seems fine to me as a recommended campaign, Miao/Zhao are not too difficult, solid rosters as well. Dwarfs I would not call too easy based only on their simplicity in battle, a few of those campaigns make up for it with their difficult campaign map situations. For a new player: absolutely do not play Belegar 😂
I just started a new Skrolk campaign today and was surprised at how much easier it was than I remembered. Probably had some luck with Gor'Rok going after the dwarves rather than me, but two armies stacked with Plague Monks before turn 10 turns pretty much everything into mulch.
@@Frederatorr he has a few minor factions as a buffer between him and Gor-Rok in 3 instead of being right on his doorstep, gives you a little more time to prepare and get some decent units rather than trying to use Skavenslaves to fight Saurus which you were basically forced to do in 2... I think he even starts off at war with you in 2 as well, so he'll be on your ass almost instantly.
@@AdamMcLaughlin-yi1dfI feel like Kairo is hated by the entire map. The slannesh always fked me in the ass if i dont wipe them out even when i pay for the non aggression pact
@@lukegaming1154 high elves are great for pick up and go, easy to learn mechanics with them and the units are pretty humanistic. Khorne is also good, never really have to worry about territory upkeep, just keep your armies going
Cathay is pretty fun. Just finished a Yuan Bo campaign. Hadn't played them since launch, and I ended up spamming Jade Warriors with Gate Masters in a lot of my armies.
I agree with Kislev, High elves and Lizardmen. I am a little on the fence about Chorfs and Tzeentch. I guess Tzeentch has barriers, but those can be hard to utilize
Honestly some of these picks are really questionable. The only ones I agree with on this list are Tyrion and Gorok. If you're new player for WH3 here's a better list: - Tyrion - Gorok - Valkyia - Thorek - Rakarth All of these lords are in very comfy positions where you can think more clearly of your next move. When you're new, you want a campaign that sort of funnels you in to going a specific direction. Having too many paths can be distracting for a new player which is why these campaigns work so well.
I generally agree, except that I'd exclude any WoC character from that list by the sheer fact that they play very unconventional with their focus on Dark Fortresses and vassalization. Also, the whole Gifts of Chaos system is explained rather poorly ingame.
@vahlen I agree with WoC settlement mechanics working a bit differently but they're a good start imo because they're strong. You'll learn to sack and occupy because you don't lose anything by sacking instead of any other order faction. Because of this you have a pretty strong economy and high level armies and heroes/lords. They're among the most fun too when it comes to monsters and sheer power. You'll get to play and coordinate attacks with allies too, form easy alliances and so on, where you need to work for it with other factions. Their chaos boons system isn't hard to understand, pretty straightforward buffs you just keep activated and you unlock more of them to use at the same time via tech tree.
@@nyrva2876 The point of the video was to not recommend strong, mindless factions. Or factions where mistakes cripple you too much. Or needlessly confusing ones. WoC, despite being my favorite faction (Shock troops with protoss shield anyone?), sadly manages to all three. Doubly so with Valkya. 1. It is a rush faction. 2. One where recruiting an army of troops tier 2 needs manually controlling Lords recruiting every turn from 7 fortresses all over the place for 12 turns. 3. One that can't undo giving a mark, meaning your Chaos Warriors of Khorne with Halberds will have to shove their anti-large bonus in their arses when they become Chosen.
Always good to have at least one fast harassment unit just to peel away their backlines, that said you can do the same with certain single entity monsters/lords
Strongly disagree with this list in large parts. Kairos is one of the hardest campaigns currently, and he only has a good unit selection if you have the DLCs. Chaos Dwarfs campaigns are too burdened by the plethora of additional mechanics and unit caps to be beginner-friendly. Lizardmen don't teach players anything about ranged combat, and their roster is too single entity-focused to be a good representation of Order faction gameplay. Kislev faces way too many strong enemies early on, and needs a lot of time to get their economy rolling, while also suffering from pretty crap units in the early game. Honestly, the only beginner-friendly lord is Tyrion. Strong economy, relatively safe starting position, and a roster that covers all the basics of combat in W3.
I do think it's good to try and find more options to offer new player than just Tyrion though, because not everyone wants to play Tyrion (I absolutely never would've got into this game if I'd had to start with him, I'm all about bad guys all the time... WH2 Queek was definitely not the ideal learning experience but I had enough fun to come back for more). That said yeah I dunno about some of these, telling noobs to play Kairos almost feels like a prank lol. I guess Greenskins, one of the non-gimmicky ones, might be another decently well rounded race for new players? I also think rather than trying to find one faction that's perfect for everything it might be worth asking new players which ones they're interested in and then giving some context for what they'll learn from that. For example, if someone really desperately wants to play the Vampire Counts first, that's obviously not gonna teach them anything about missiles or artillery; but they are gonna learn a lot about cavalry and magic, and they're way less likely to bounce off and uninstall than if they force themselves to play High Elves even though it doesn't sound fun to them. So just making sure people know what their chosen faction will and won't teach them when they start the campaign could go a long way toward easing the learning curve/
I don't think there's anything wrong with recommending Cathay as a beginner faction. Yes they have a simple playstyle, but that will enable newer players to learn important mechanics like LoS and terrain without panicking over microing everything. They have everything in their roster bar monstrous infantry so it can all be experimented with at a player's leisure. Also think you sold their frontline short - Jade Warriors are some of the best generic infantry in the game, you can set them up and they'll do their job for a long old while without oversight. Zhao Ming also has a very forgiving start position, particularly now Gelt has been moved near him. I'd have no trouble suggesting him to a new player. The Empire I'd hesitate to, but only because Karl Franz still has a very challenging start position.
i would almost agree except they only have one unit that actually is ranged and the only cavalry they have is light armored monsters that are really just used for taking out routers and disrupting weak backlines. they've almost as micro intensive as the greenskins
I am not sure, as the most powerful strategy by far is to run around only really taking ambush fights, at which point your swarming gors from all sides will rip through most anyone with ease. The faction is rather bush reliant because with low leadership and lack of armor your troops are just pretty explicitly worse in a fair fight.
I like Beastmen but I disagree. They're so unlike other factions that when you transition back to a more standard faction you'll struggle with things like upkeep and public order.
I strongly disagree. You mentioned criteria for why they might be "easy", but as Zerkovich mentioned when speaking about the Dwarves, this is not about just being easy, that's only one of the criteria, it's also about teaching you how to play the game. And since the Beastmen are one of the most unique race in the game with being the only true horde left and having cap units, it's a bad idea to start the game with them.
I agree with beastmen it's just an introduction faction with a amount of games mechanics. Once you have learn those basic skills you can move to a more advanced faction. Beastmen, to Ghorst to elf faction on the donut, this would give a stepped progression to more advanced game mechanics.
I'm sure this video is full of good information, but there's a couple things I have discrepancies with. 2:55 - I could be wrong, but artillery (Helstorm Rockets featured here) is a higher tier weapon meaning you have to work up to them. You'll get your opportunity to play with "infantry and cavalry and using all your units properly" while you progress up toward them. 3:23 - Not being reliant on "experimenting with aggressive builds" or different tactics is absolutely perfect for a new player who is probably just trying to come to grips with moving an army around in general. Saying that's bad for a new player because once they play any other faction it'll be different is like saying the Huns from Age of Empires 2 are a bad beginner civilization because they don't need to build houses. New players have enough on their minds in both of those games. Not needing to remember to build houses or command cavalry in Warhammer is actually a good thing to help them zone in on getting to grips with other things. After a Dwarf player feels comfortable enough with the bare basics they can hop on over to something like Bretonnia if they want to then focus on cavalry. I think you're taking the wrong angle here when it comes to how to ease new players into the game. I think this is a case of an experienced person forgetting where they themselves started from.
My first ever faction I played with is dwarves in WH2, and then I assumed this game is just napoleon total war but with a fantasy paintjob It’s made me realise the importance of positioning & proper formations, so that’s a grudging
Love your channel but this is objectively an awful list. Recommending Chaos Dwarfs to a new players is crazy. Those factions require a lot of resource management and planning. You have been playing this game for so long that you have no clue how overwhelming this stuff is for new players.
Kairos? I am not quite sold about that one. His position is pretty difficult, especially without the dlc (that new players probably won’t have). His abilities are also a bit complicated, as is his the range focused army (to a beginner at least).
1:14 I still remember picking Vampire Counts as my first campaign in Warhammer 1 and have no idea what I am doing even after 30 turns. Switched to Greenskins and immediately understand how the game works. VC is so bad for judging strength of units
Honestly, these suggestions aren't great. Kairos has one of the worst start positions in the game, and a new player can easily get killed off due to having enemies on both sides, as well as teclis and sometimes lizardmen coming from over the sea.. And Katarin is surrounded by strong enemies, azhag, moulder, drycha, norsca and chaos all ready to charge, while the minor empire factions and kislev die so easily and aren't much help. Both campaigns I've seen so many "help i'm dying" posts about, their relatively weak eco doesn't help either. Also, your justification for not including cathay is a bit weak. Their frontline is honestly pretty solid thanks to the ying-yang bonuses. Not going to win any awards, but it's fine. And zhao mings start position is excellent, with loads of nice allies nearby, and economy is good as well, meaning you can have more armies. Astrogath is a bad choice, not because of start position or anything, but because of how complex chaos dwarves are. They have so many different resources, so many ways to trade them, even 3 different settlement types. They're probably the most complex faction in the entire game. Really interesting and fun, but i'd never recommend them to a beginner for that reason, just too complex to start out with. Tyrion/gor-rok sure. I'd include zhao ming and grimgor. Both have fairly simple start positions, good economy and not overly complex factions, as well as a fairly varied roster.
My first faction and first win was with Settra. I just spent my whole campaign ramming chariots into people, not sure I learned much about how to play, but I had a lot of fun.
First time I actually disagree with a Zerk video. Kairos's start position is pretty hard for beginners and Cathay can teach all the fundamentals while having a better front line than empire. I would say dwarfs are good precisely because of their tanky nature, it teaches you basics and while you will have to adapt to less tanky front line for other factions, but that doesn't mean they arent good to learn the game with imo.
i think chaos dwarves are not beginner friendly for the sole reason of multiple currencies, yes they are very powerful but i think it can be very overwhelming to try to balance different kinds of settlements on a first playthrough
Play as the skaven, throw yourself in the deep end and if you drown at least you'll drown the enemy with your sea of skaven corpses. It's also such a nice change when you play a faction that has good infantry for once.
I really disagree on Cathay, the peasants units may be weak but the jade units make for a really sturdy frontline. Their start is also quite forgiving with lots of allies and relatively few enemies. And the current version of harmony is really easy to understand and apply. All in all, while my first recommendation would be Tyrion, Cathay would be n°2 or 3. At the very least they're much better than Kislev or the Chaos Dwarfs which are either pretty bad with a weird hybrid roster and unfun mechanics or way too complex and locked behind a DLC.
Tomb Kings I'd argue are a good faction to begin with. You get pretty much every single unit type but you don't have to worry about economy. It teaches players well on army diversity without bankrupting them.
You also fight a huge variety of enemies depending on your lord of choice. Unlike dwarves that can be stuck grinding against greenskins and skaven forever.
If there was a single free Tomb king, I’d agree with you. Alas, they are DLC only last I checked and paying extra for your training wheels feels like bad advice. Only the core factions should probably be considered.
@@g4manhere553Tomb Kings came with WH2 … since this video covers Immortal Empires, you need WH2 to play. Problem with the Tomb Kings is their Crumbling mechanic may not be beginner friendly
"Kairos is a good starter lord and cathay's front line isn't good. Chaos dwarfs, the most complicated faction on the campaign map, are also a good first time faction" Well, those sure are some takes you can have.
I was with you for most of this, but I'm going to hard disagree with the Chaos Dwarf recommendation. Their early game is brutal since you can barely field any strong units, the economy management is way different and way more complicated than any other faction (which is not going to help a new player understand how the economy works for factions in general), and as a Chaos aligned faction, almost everybody hates you (including Grimgor). I have never played a Chaos Dwarf game where Grimgor didn't declare war on me by turn 30. I would suggest Yuan Bo as a substitute. Your start position is way more comfortable and favorable with a good number of potential allies around, the edge of the map guarding your Western border for you, a standard economy and the balanced unit roster you were talking about, with the addition of a smattering of large single entities and flying units to cut your teeth on if you want to dabble in those. To each their own though; everyone is going to have a slightly different opinion on this kind of thing, just giving my two cents.
My two cents here... 1.) Tyrion and basically any high elf campaign is easy. 2.) Gor-Rok is ok. Last defenders is also easy. They got 3/4 secure flanks and Kalida and the vampires are a joke. And then you got a strong base to stomp the world. Oxyotl is also a beast but ok, you gotta have half a brain to play with him. 3.) I would not rate any chaos dwarf as easy to play. They are a very strong faction but they are not easy. They need patience, you gotta be able to face early-mid game with armies that field a lot of crap units and a handful of elites. You don't need to be a genius player but you gotta know some stuff about the game to do that. Plus they got a lot of mechanics and they get attacked from all sides in higher difficulties. 4.) Kairos... ehm... ehm... True he got genuinely one of the best starting armies and early tzeench armies absolutely stomp opposition (if you got the right DLC). However... They got no economy and you will have to make the most of that early advantage because they are coming for you from all sides. Oxyotl is no joke and the the rest of your opponents are no joke either. And they will outnumber you. To make a joke out of the campaign you need to know how to play and also how to utilize your powers. 5.) Kislev? Really? No. Just no. All Kislev campaigns are brutal. No two ways about it. You will be attacked from all sides, you will have to face some of the toughest enemies at once. And you got no allies. Your army is ok but warriors of chaos are better and their heroes are stronger. All Kislev campaigns are genuinely among the hardest ones. If there is a single noob that can last more than 20 turns in one, I have yet to meet this person. If you are new to the game, for your own sake, please stay away from Kislev. These campaigns are hard even for people that easily win other campaigns. My suggestions 1.) Any high elf. Especially on the island. You beat everyone, noone can touch you. Profit. 2.) Any beastman. Especially Taurox. Read his mechanics for 5 minutes. Build the best units you can. Point and click. Win. Repeat. Many times. 3.) Last defenders. Solid flanks. Solid army. Easy opponents. Advance and dominate. 4.) Grimgor. He is a damage dealer and a tank at the same time. And starting orcs are very good. Just attack and steamroll opposition. He will snowball too. Grom is also supposedly easy but the AI is too aggressive against him and you got 3 opponents in turn 3 or something. If you manage to beat that, you are good though. All the orcs are decently easy anyway. 5.) Archaon. Is there anything that can stop him really? The answer is no. 6.) Ikkit claw. Just do it. The other skaven are not that hard either (ok maybe the rat ogre guy is). But Ikkit is a beast. And his capital is one of the best cities on the map. If not the best. Noob traps 1.) No Skarbrand. He can be a beast in turn 5 or something. But you absolutely gotta know what you are doing to achieve that. If you don't, you got a constantly underlevelled lord, chasing his tail and pondering why you lack the funds for even one stack when everyone got like 3-4. 2.) No chaos demons of any kind. They need their mechanics to be good. And their starting positions are not easy. 3.) No empire. That is accurate. Though our man Karl has received a buff and the rest are in a better state too. 4.) No Brettonia. Many will be attracted to the knights aesthetic. Brettonia is really lackluster though and it will disappoing most new players.
We didn't have the same kind of campaign with Tzeentch, I'm always fighting off 2 full stack of lizardmen to the left and having to repeal Teclis' invasion far to my right. And that's not even considering Slaanesh to the far right pushing since it takes at least 4 turns of forced marched to bring Karos from the front line to deal with them... Never have time to bring my settlement and military building to tier 3 to recruit Chaos Warriors with Halberd to deal with the single entity dino the lizardmen have. I find it almost has hard has Nurgle
Thanks for the video ! I mostly agree as well. Kislev, I might not have had much luck, but I find the campaign pretty tough to start with, pretty hard to defend your territory on a lengthy campaign. Maybe I am just bad also 😂
I mean Katerin is alright, not the easiest in the game but not exactly the hardest, and no convoluted mechanics with kislev for a new player to balance in the way that Chaos Dwarves or skaven do
@@ProFoolmaneven with said mechanics the chaos dwarves are far easier than Kislev, S+ tier roster even with shitstacks and all territory is green, easy start positions for all lords, build literally any building and your economy is fine, crazy tech tree etc, Kislev is getting wave after wave of Norsca and demons and chaos dwarves coming from red territory you can never advance into
The community regards Kislev-Tzarina_Katarin & Tzeentch-Kairos as some of the most challenging campaigns. Though Kislev got a little breather, with Malakai plugging the North up a little.
Would disagree on Kislev. Tough starting position. Hostile factions all around, need to know where to go first to secure the borders. You have vampires, tree kin and Festus at the South, orcs and ogres at the East, rats and huge amount of chaos factions at the North. It's too much for new player, especially a passive one. P.S. not talking about easy difficulty though, i meant normal\hard and up.
Wood Elves would have been my go to. they're a good faction with a good economy and a vast array of unit types and magic. it does kinda oversimplify knowing how to manage territories since they can be played in a "raze and forget" kind of manner but otherwise i'd say they are great for learning to play with.
at the same time is it very hard for a new player to understand that you can use the worldroots to traverse the world and get more forests to incfrease your economy, thereby making the game simpler. I have a friend whom I am playing with a lot lately, his totaly new never played anything alike this game, and he had a big struggle with playing wood elves when he tried them. I believe that the dwarfs are without doubt the easiest to play and that is what he ended up playing and he loved it and now he refuse to play other races haha.
Although you're correct that they're a relatively easy faction to play, that was not the main criterion for Zerkovich. Wood Elves have probably the most unique campaign of the game and their gameplay is way too weird for new players to really learn something about the game by playing them...
Yeah wood elves are very specific. You need to be aggressive in total war Warhammer, with wood elves you'll learn that leaving your forests is painful. (bad settlements outside of the woods) So you'd think you have to stay there or find other forests via teleportation which is unique to them. Basically, defending settlements outside of forests is next to impossible and they don't yeald much anyway but you don't want someone else take those settlements so it's a bit weird for a new player.
Yo these are some hot takes. Like yes, the Kislev roster is really good for beginners, but the start positions for alot of lords are brutal. I just straight up disagrees with Kairos, thats the hottest take. Way too leaning into magic, which for alot of beginners isn't super what you need to focus on when there way more fundamental parts of the game they are already trying to learn. I also don't think starting with super easy armies like dwarfs is a bad thing. Alot people need to that easy first step to grow into more complex factions.
Kairos also relies a lot on ranged units that are squishy and medium range. Elves with their stupid 180 range or silver shielded AP XBows are way more forgiving for a newbie. Yes, Kairos is technically a 2-bird doomstack, but a new player wont know how to cheese with him like that, and even if the newbie did, what did we learn from that for general application other than 'magic = good'?
Kislev starting pos is a hell as well, a lot of enemies around , you really want to put a beginner against norscans chaos warriors, skaven,orcs,vampires... And their early armies not at all solid
recommending katarin to learn the game on is honestly kinda crazy imo, while yes the kislev armies are more well rounded than other races, katarin has imo one of the top 10 most difficult campaigns in the game since she will likely be getting attacked at every single angle and even when she deals with those threats, there are even more threats that will come very soon afterwards (like when you kill azazel or throt, throgg is usually on his way), imo the better faction to learn the game on is any of the cathayan lords, mostly zhao and miao though, they live on probably the safest region of the game with most factions on it being either confederatable or able to be made allies (balthasar and wood elves) and once you get cathay under control, the rest of the campaign is pretty easy with the only major threats being from outside of cathay and since you already have that under control you can throw all the armies you’ve acquired out there to either defend against the threats or go on the offensive, the hardest cathay campaign is probably miao and even then it isn’t crazy difficult to deal with
Disagree with Kairos, though. The Tzeentch roster is absolutely amazing and the lore options are pretty good. But his starting economy is brutal, ie slow as fuck. Definitely switch him with Grand Cathay, specifically Zhao Ming. He has a better starting position than Miao Ying, ie no major threats nearby plus a friendly Gelt as neighbour. He also has better faction effects, ie +5 alchemist recruit rank and +15 melee armour.
Azhag. Starts between 2 potential allies thx to his diplomatic bonus (One of them being the goddamn von Carstiens). You will learn about leadership and how to use a balanced roster, quest battles and the sweet bonuses they give, and the greenskins especially have a nice easy tech tree/faction mechanic. Anything but Kairos lmao.
I wouldn't recommend Kairos to a begginer. Greenskins are an easy faction to begin with. They have waaghs, cheap and strong units, and no difficult mechanics.
Kislev is really balanced, easy to use, but Katarin's start can be absolute hell depending on how fast Throt wants to sprint at the walls of Kislev. If you focus Azhag early on, then Throt can snowball pretty fast (ngl Throgg feels like the only one that got speedbumped by Malakai), and if you go after Throt, then Drycha might take stuff in the southern Oblast. easy to use starting army, but there's a reason why people asked CA to swap the recommendation from Kislev to Cathay xD
Kairos?! For Real? My man Zerk just taking the piss apparently. Try a Kairos campaign without the champions of chaos dlc and tell me how much you love fighting Slaneesh light cav as an early game hyrbid infantry faction, just before you get the joy of fighting lizardmen's light infantry extravaganza
I wouldn't recommend Kislev for beginers at all. It is one of the most unsafe strating locations there is, they tend to get invaded from many sides at the same time and their economy is not great... Which limits de number of armies they can field to respond to threats.
I .... actually have to disagree with Kislev and specifically Katarin as your first choice of campaign ^^' Because that's what I did. A bloody n00b this was basically my first TW game and I picked Katarin in the RoC map as my first campaign. And I'm not kidding here, it took me 20 something attempts (restarting the campaign) until I finally made it through to the victory screen. Kislev is so damn open that it's a horror trying to defend your territory with just one army, because you can't even afford a second army by turn 20 yet. On top of that, South Drycha, South East Azhag, South West Festus, North Valkia (an absolute Terror!) North North West Throt, a bit further Throgg, West Azazel. So while your best interest is to shut down Drycha and Azagh to secure alliances with the Empire (btw good Chance Vlad shows up at your doorstep too) you'll get attacked by two WoC factions, Skaven and Norsca while you're at it and a novice in this game with absolutely scramble (and probably collapse) under that pressure. So, no, Kislev isn't a good starting campaign at all ^^' And even for Lizardmen, I'd actually say Tehenauhin (or Oxyotl with DLC) is "easier" as he starts in a very secure corner of the map as well. His campaign mechanics might screw you over a bit though.
WTF those are weird choices! Tyrion and Gor-Rok are ok but they're WH2 factions and no one trying the game is going to buy the full package at one! Katarin and Kairos both got hard and challenging starting positions in IE. Chaos Dwarfs on top of being locked behind a paywall are one of the most mechanic-heavy factions in the game and has unique and different economy! The only fairly easy base-game campaign with well-rounded roster is not mentioned here which is Zhao Ming's campaign.
My thoughts exactly. Its a pretty elitist list. Like "You should spend several hundred dollars on this game before you even play your first campaign to have fun", which just isn't true. Should have only focused on basegame factions.
I think your commendations are a bit weird. Chaos Dwarfs are very different from the other factions and probably not good to learn the game with. Kairos has a very harsh start and pretty much requires that you own some DLC for him to be more manageable. I'd recommend: Miao Ying if you're have literally no DLC. She's a very balanced faction with simple mechanics and the Cathay army is fairly standard with all kinds of units to learn. Tyrion if you have Warhammer 2 for the same reasons Zerk said. Balthasar Gelt if you have Warhammer 1. He's got a save and easy start position with a strong ally nearby. The empire is a very standard faction that is great for learning the game with.
You have to understand not everyone is a glue eater that can't handle the dumbed down mechanics of chaos dwarves. Try playing older TW games or Paradox games if you want to see complex mechanics for a beginner to grasp.
You're nuts to recommend Katarin for a beginner. That's one of the hardest campaign starts in the game, the only few that immediately come to mind as more difficult are Daniel, Imrik and funny enough the other Kislev factions: Boris and Kostaltyn. Also you really need to mention that your recommendations are assuming that you have ALL of the DLC for every faction. You were specifically talking about Tzangors with Kairos, and those are a unit you can only use with the Shadows of Change DLC, same thing with Kislev without that DLC Kislev doesn't have Kislevite Warriors which again makes Katarin's start a lot more difficult. Gor-Rok is a solid recommendation though. Perfect campaign for a beginner.
If you wanna be a baddy, alternatively to Tzeentch witch I wouldn't recommend would be Khorne, especially if you don't care about the use of magic. Skarbrand's campaign is extremely entertaining and engaging, you will learn how to be aggressive, how to move efficiently with your lord (both campaign and field), and how to use the bare bones army, no magic, not much tricks just good ol' fashioned mele carnage. Skulls for the skull throne mechanic is easy and rewarding, bloodletting is pure fun and Skarbrand slaps like there's no tomorrow...and there wont be any tomorrow for your poor opponents. Furthermore, his infrastructure and building stuff comes in a liiitle bit later into the campaign 'couse it takes time to passively occupy the settlements so you don't have to multitask and can completely concentrate on murdering the area in the begging, and then later on the infrastructure managements trickles in. Your starting position is a bit...exposed...but that's good!! you're Khorne you like those idiots sending you skulls attached to those bodies, they got you surrounded...those poor bastards. You will be in a beautiful opportunity to level up nice and early, get money from fights and settle in the mid game. U u Also...Kislev...sure but deff on lower difficultie levels 'couse their start position isn't as snug as it seems.
The problem with Skarbaby is that he relies on momentum and a good use of the campaign map. If you sit back at all, you will get punished hard. If you lose Skarbrand early, the game is practically over. If you let the enemy factions tech up as fast as you do, suddenly your unstoppable melee units aren't roflstomping anything they get in contact with anymore. Skarbrand is an easy campaign to 'get good at', but for a complete noob I think Valkia is superior for learning with less stress.
First of all...Skarbaby ❤🔥 Second yes you deff don't wanna sit back, he got one speed and it's GO! I guess I dont like Valkia so much 'couse she's just a weaker Skarbubu, and I'm not a fan of her starting position either. You'll often get pulled left then right then left putting down fires so it can be confusing and frustrating picking a general direction to move your campaign, and you can end up a bit stuck and lost in your own lands during those rucial early game turns. Also I think as a warrior of chaos she's a bit too different from the average faction regarding unit recrutment and building up yo faction couse she really only focuses on the dark fortreses. With Skarbrand you do eventually get to a regular infrastructure management while Valkia stays sitting in her edgy fortreses. That being said I agree that she is not so heavily insentivised to constantly move witch deff makes her a more chill campaign. I'd still recommend Skarbrand, but Valkia is deff a good starter pokemon if you wanna master warriors of chaos and/or want an alternative to have a bit chiller campaign but still wish to paint the world red.
"The empire has an ok starting position", meanwhile every empire campaign: Louen takes Marienburg, Hochland gets destroyed from Festus, Averland and and Stirland get deleted from Vlad, Norscans and other deamons raid Nordland lowering your fealty and almost staring a civil war of what's left of the elector counts and you have a Changeling lurking around and you can't really do much about it at the start of the campaign because you don't have the necessary resources, so at turn 40 you are left with a destroyed empire which you have to reclaim and rebuild. Loved the experience 😜
After thrones of decay empire has become a LOT easier imo. Usually vlad steamrolls his way to my front door but my last 3 playthroughs I've just ignored him and elspeth (however you spell her name) has mopped the floor with him once he gets close. Now I just wipe out the barrow legion, make friends with louen, and then all I have to worry about is the fecundites and the occasional norscan or belakor if he manages to make it past bretonnia
I hate that the Changeling always spawns in the middle of the Empire. I would love if he spawned in eg 1 of 8 locations. He is so so so frustrating to deal with even when you know his mechanics. I cant imagine being a new player to the game and getting ambushed by the Changeling out of thin air, not knowing where the fuck he came from or why your provinces are Tzeentch revolting seemingly out of nowhere
My suggestion - add a faction that is fun mechanics wise that may be otherwise simple. I struggled with WH2 until I tried Taurox (I tried High Elves, LM, it was a lot going on). Taurox while being broken was relatively simple with unlocking understandings of campaign mechanics - how to use melee units - got the Sword of Khaine, learned how to use abilities & magic. Despite not learning fully "how the game is played" it was invaluable for understanding how fun the game is. I think campaigns like this should be included in this list and then expanded on with the likes of Tyrion etc.
As someone who play the game since 2016 and play both campaign (legendary / very hard) and ranked MP I can tell that Zerk POV is quite interesting and true. I think economy/campaign mechanics could have been a bit more focused. I also want to mention that it's very different to play MP from campaign and new players should be aware of it. In campaign HE are quite easy, but they are not that easy in MP. In general I also think that Cathay is also a good pick still, because unlike the empire their line and are units are quite solid (heavy armored). But to maximise their potential (aka harmony), you have still some rooms for improvement. Their economy is legit broken too and they don't have that much foes. And I think it's important to mention that future dlc's and mods can have a signifiant impact on how a race is played.
I learned the game with Greasus Goldtooth, because for the first 30 turns or so, melee brute force is all you need, and by the time you're getting ready to need ranged and power options, you have access to some very good and simple ones like giants and leadbelchers
I would've avoided using any dlc factions or factions that lean on dlc's like Kairos. These are new players who are learning the game and paying for a dlc is probably out of the question until they know they want to keep playing.
Tzeentch and kislev are some of the hardest to play, I'd replace tzeentch with Zhao Ming, and kislev with the Greenskins, playing wurrzag for example. Chaos Dwarfs are also a very poor choice since they take a while to take off, and they are one of if not the faction that has the most things to manage, so recommending them is baffling. HE teaches defensive armies, but no arty dinamics besides their one piece, but yes easy first faction; Lizardmen teaches monster rush faction dynamics, and they are juggernauts, meaning they tank as much as they deal damage, so easy starter; Cathay brings full defensive formation tactics with artillery, but not as much coddling as dwarfs; Greenskins teach Horde rush tactics with some starter in cav dynamics, so imo, deez iz da bestest.
The campaign i recommend for a new player its the changeling, you can't even lose the campaign if you fk up, i think its the most easy and fast to learn LL
Cathay has no forgiving army? Hmmm, i would disagree. Their Jade-Warriors are amazing if you want to learn the game and if all fall in disarray, their lords can save the day on their own, if needed. They have cavalary, which is ok and the caravan system gives you nice extra money and items. Easy starting position with corner of the map and a lot of friends. Also skaven as one of the main threads are easy little wantans for your army. So i would say, Cathay is definitely one of the easiest starting and learning factions you can choose.
Tyrion yes pretty easy campaign. Dwarfs good in general for new players because they need at least some understanding from the start.Kairos definitely not for beginners you need a dlc woc just to be able to utilize his strong magic and without SoC dlc have no replenishment until turn 25 . Dwarfs of chaos definitely not for beginners pretty complicated economy army composition and etc. me with 1000 hours of game experience really struggled at the start . Their playstyle is unique army recruitment is unique they have army cap which only suitable for DOC and tomb kings. Grand Cathay is absurdly strong but for the begginers its a good starting point
Dont agree with Chaos Dwarfs, the additional ressources, unit caps and upgrades might overwhelm a new player. Kislev is also a bit off, as you will be attacked from pretty much all sides.
Not recommending dwarfs for the reasons provided, then recommending Itza is a very odd assessment. Itza Saurus spam with E-Z-peezy, no friendly fire kroak nukes is one of the easiest, cheesiest and least tactically demanding campaigns in the game lol. Doesn’t make sense man lol
Kairos? I dont know for lower difficulties but even Legend himself (and I also played so I could test it myself), at least in VH/VH, oxyotol has pretty strong armies making your start pretty rough for new players, you have also to fight slaanesh, literally tzeentch counterwich can be troublesome for newbies.
Kairos is pretty hard to play imo, I would have put Grimgor as a good choice, he's a beast and you get units so easily a defeat isn't really a problem !
>Grand Cathay >Not Very Forgiving Army I’m sorry, but what? Jade Warriors are stupid easy to recruit, and don’t even need buffs to hold against basically anything in the game. Cathay is practically a “set up and forget” army. I do think that Cathay’s army isn’t well balanced, but they’re definitely not unforgiving by any metric. I’d argue they’re closer to Dwarves in terms of forgiveness with battles than they are to Empire
Can't say I'd recommend Kairos. You invariably end up in a a two front war against stack after stack of lizardmen which are pretty good against tzeentch. Even in the beginning you have to rush down the eastern parts of the south pole really quickly and then rush back west to confront oxyotl or you'll loose your capital. I wouldn't exactly call that beginner friendly. Which is not to say that Karios/Tzeentch isn't incredibly fun with exceedingly powerful late game armies and campaign abilities. Just the beginning is really tough if you don't know what you're in for. And good Lord Tzarina Katarin? Are you out of your damn mind? That has one of the most hard, and with Throt, downright annoying campaign starts in the game. Why would you ever recommend that to a beginner? I have over 2000 hours and find that one of the shittiest starts. Pre 5.0 Kugath is easier than this. Chaos Dwarfs are also not for beginners since they have a completely different economy. Truly some bizarre picks.
Just play Wurzag. The economy of greenskins is the simplest out of all factions, and their gameplay embodies the total war basics, by the time you've familiarized yourself with the rock paper scissors formula you will have access to giants which teach you how single entities work, trolls which teach you how monstrous infantry work and their shitty artillery, which still teaches you how artillery works. Savage Orcs are really good under Wurzag but aren't outright OP like other units and force you to strategize. Meanwhile Wurzag being a caster type character, and one of the best, you learn how magic works and there is both the offensive stuff Wurzag excells at and the more subtle but decisive buffs and debuffs showcased by the night goblin shaman. I'm teaching my father to play and Wurzag is making it all very digestible for him.
Tzeench mechanic is OP. I played Kairos and all wants to have a piece of me. He's like a god, a faction declares war and the next thing you know he can't move his army. Another faction declares war and the next turn we are at peace 😅😅. The changing of ways is really an OP mechanic. You get to choose your wars allowing you to expand rapidly without having to fight many factions at once.
Yeah, Katarin is much easier now as Malakai comes to take her role as the true defender as the world. Before that, Katarin would still in Oblast in turn 100 struggling with Full might of Chaos and Demons and unlimited Norsca Monkeys and Chaso Dwarfs and even Vlad could pay you a visit from south.
I have to disagree with Gor-Rok & Kairos and Kislev over cathay ; - skaven are one of the most annoying faction to deal with, always ambushing and invisible on the map it's a weird choice for beginners and also you're surrounded by enemies, bordeleau, markus, yuan bo, dark elves, skavens, vampire coast and kairos will also come for your ass at some point it's not beginner friendly at all when there is a multiple front wars and also the faction mechanic is sloppy and it's not a balanced army, very monster heavy, i rarely see anyone using cav or missile with lizardmen - kairos start position is way too isolated, it will not teach a beginner how to secure its border and the roster relies on the DLCS too much. And cathay is a much more beginner friendly faction, balanced army and good frontlines (idk why Zerkovich says it isn't, i've used jade warriors/halberdiers heavily even in the turn 100+), it is indeed an easy sit & artillery faction but it is the case only in the mid to late part of the campaign, early it touch and teach a bit of everything in early, bow / guns difference, line of sight importance, cavalry, flying cavalry, especially with the trade caravan battles, you have limited units to use in battle and you can add a ton of other faction units too, also while travelling you meet almost every faction possible and that's a good teaching experience without having any consequences on your campaign, you just lose a little bit of money and since cathay has such a good economy, it's almost free, it also teach about securing borders from chaos, the lightning strike importance against greenskin, allies / confederation, except the elves i don't see any faction better at teaching the game to newbies, it's probably even better than the elves. I don't see how cathay is worse than kislev, considering that kislev you get invaded from 6 different sides while you are fighting almost alone, azazel north west, wulfrick and other chaos warrior from the west, archaon & daniel from the north, skaven which are directly above you, chaos dwarfs from the north East, Greenskins from the east with Azzag.
Katarin is hard as hell, you have to manage skaven, norscan, chaos, orcs and Wood elves all at once and your "friends" can get overwhelmed very fast, would not recommend for a first. Surprised not to see greenskins or beastmen here, the first playing with lots of variety with relatively strong roster and easy mechanics, the second one for the ambush easy win and another way to play. Tbh special mention to alith anar who is by far the easiest elf to play, and dark elves who have well rounded roster with I admit a rather complicated campagne mechanic for new players
The empire offers one great advantage for noobs: readability. If you're new, all these witch elves, changebringers and Tzaangors can be pretty overwhelming. But everybody knows what swordsmen and archers are supposed to do. Maybe you shouldn't expect to win your campaign, but you can expect to learn the basics of the game.
First timer plays Karl Franz and claims the starting province:
"Ah this is incredibly easy"
Meanwhile, Kazhrak, Festus, Vlad, Azhag, and Drycha:
"Confident, we like that"
@@paladinwright yeah you're assaulted from so many sides...so much to defend.
@baloneyandfunk5234 insert "SUMMON THE ELECTOR COUNTS," uhhh Karl. . .they dead
@@paladinwright don't forget about kemler... you ain't completing eilhart as a region for a while
@notoffensivenpc8400 for me, Kemmler is always a hit or miss. But when he moves into the Empire I just quickly push him back to the fort. Truly no rest for the Empire
Putting Kairos's campaign on here must truly be a Tzeentchian scheme to torture new players, because even on moderate-to-easy difficulties the Tzeentch campaign is one of the hardest in Total War. Complicated economy management, wars on multiple fronts, and the practical inability to use diplomacy makes this a wicked challenge of a campaign. I'd advise newer players to stay away
Kairos roflstomps once he gets rolling, but like Imrik in WH2 he has a brutal fucking start that a new player will find frustrating beyond words.
Its also very DLC dependent. Kairos without the marauders you get from champions of chaos is truly ridiculous, Kairos with cheap but usable melee inf before tier 3 / skirmish cav is hard but manageable
Trying to call any of the Warhammer campaigns "hardest in total war" is laughable. The hardest Warhammer campaigns are like average campaigns in most historical games. The legendary lord and hero mechanics are so poorly balanced you can have a legendary lord as a one man army when there isn't even anything slightly comparable in other total war games.
@@simpicusmaximusmfs havent tried totalwar:atilla and fighting the Huns, but you cant ignore the fact fhat Kairos IE is hard, try that shit in Legendary and tell me how you fared 😂😂😂
@@JarmamStuff Oxyotl is going to end any new player trying that campaign his ass rolls up with strong forces very quickly and your often not even done getting that first enemy dealt with when he shows up.
Recommending Kairos is a strange choice if you ask me. In my experience this is one of the more challenging starts currently in the game. You have three nearby factions that will all declare war on you sooner rather than later, which means you very easily end up in a situation where you're getting pummeled from all sides. And even when you figure out how to optimize the start the hurdle of beating Oxy is one of the toughest early rival battles. Not to mention you pretty much need the warriors of chaos DLC for the faction to be good, you're completely dependant on being adept at using magic, Tzeentch's eco situation is a nightmare for a new player, and you won't learn anything about playing with diplomacy or trading.
My first thought after Tyrion and a Lizard (I would personally pick Kroq'Gar) would be Malekith. You have a bunch of friends around and a fairly isolated position, Dreadswords have been buffed to be very reliable and Dark Shards are great and the more advanced army has great variety, and both your early rivals (Valkia and Grombrindal) aren't overly aggressive or super strong offensively but they offer a decent challenge when it comes to killing them off.
oh brother what game have you been playing? malekith is one of the worst starting locations in the game. yes grommbindal is easy to roll over considering early ap ranged is like the dark elves main strength but after that you either have taurox and cylostra tearing up the south and in my playthroughs Valkia routinely obliterates the dark elves to the NE. Sigvald also often becomes quite a problem and can easily take out what little remains of your dark elf brethren. i do agree Kairos is a very odd choice by Zerk.
I think it is more focused in easy diff. for beginners? Than Kairos position could be okay? I Just played him once and it was on Legendary - He was not the hardest but by far not the easiest. Truly a weird choice
Malekith...? Nah His starting positon is not that easy
Definitely agree with the doubt for Kairos. Constant two front wars are not beginner friendly.
Totally agree with you about Kairos. Kairos is definitely a hard one. When you want to play an Chaos Faction as an new player i would rather chose Azazael (Kislev will not instantly declare war on you) or Be'lakor, because His start Position is kinda good + with these two you can learn Hammer & anvil tactics because of the gifts of slaanesh. I would recommend to play Chaos Warriors or Kislev after Gor-Rok or Tyrion, because in my opinion, you learn with Gor-Rok and Tyrion how to manage your front line in an beginner-friendly environment
Cant believe kairos is on this. His start can be insanely difficult and one of the hardest in the game imo.
True. Although the video "Why you suck with Tzeentch" by Blake's Takes helps a lot. This is doubly frustrating since the other Tzeentch faction literally can't lose the game unless you actively try for it.
Already beat it with the choas fractions but ya KISLEV and Two headed 😎 bird 🐦 sick 😷 without some thought
Kairos is very much so not an easy campaign unless you're already really good at utilising your spells and unit positioning. Oxyotl will shred you if you aren't paying attention and aware of how to handle him
Destroy the nurgle faction, get a non aggression pact with the Slaaneshi one, rush force peace while you fight Teclis and also grab the -3 changing of ways cooldown from Kairos' skill line. After you have those, it's literally impossible to lose because you can choose who can declare war on you or not
@@rohan8243 The problem is when the slanneshi faction says 'Screw You!' and declares war on you anyways
Kairos has to be a troll lmao that campaign bends you over and tells you how it's going to be
Literally gets spanked by everything to the north if you dont get steam rolled by oxy
Yeah, he must've forgotten about Oxyotl coming straight for you with 2 stacks around turn 10. And then Teclis is there as well
VERY TRUE, your tzeench ally is weak AF, the slaanesh faction to your right will attack you no matter what, Oxyotl will flood you with his skinktide, Teclis at the north might be weak early but will be a constant threat anyways. I dont know if ita better bcuz of the changeling dlc but last time i played i had a hard time even in Hard difficulty 😅
@@daxxgaming2567 Changeling is a totally different campaign. Honestly that one is so easy new people shouldn't play it because of how unique it is
@@jcbvickers i can probably handle Kairos campaign better if not for the ABYSMAL replenishment of tzeench unit/faction
I kinda disagree with Grand Cathay not having a solid frontline. In my experience, Jade Warriors hold pretty well. I think Grand Cathay's armies are less forgiving if you're not learning to utilise the Harmony mechanic, rather than the frontline being bad at all
Yes, but jade warriors can crack under anti-infantry units, as do normal empire units. Stronger frontlines are much better at protectin against anti-infantry
@@NotInterXX Oh, definitely. But that's the case for most frontline infantry. Anti Infantry will chew through most frontlines anyway. But overall, I've found they still hold quite well even compared to High Elf Spearmen (Even costing the same, having more health, and being armoured). Yes, they're not the same level as Chaos Warriors or Dwarf Warriors in terms of defence or holding, but they're definitely a strong and reliable Frontline Infantry compared to most in my opinion. The argument I was making was that Grand Cathay's frontline is solid and forgiving, but a better point to make for Grand Cathay being less beginner friendly is that it also relies on specific mechanics in battle (Harmony and keeping units standing still to get buffs for example).
@@Dalinks337 cathays front line does not hold long and does not have great leadership. they will route pretty fast and they do not have a ton of armor.
@@prestonvarner611 I agree that they don't have a lot of leadership - not a bad amount but nothing to write home about. But I would say their armour is pretty substantial. They have the staying power, but needs the mechanics of the army to be utilised, which was my point before - The mechanics make the army less beginner friendly, not the frontline.
Are you kidding? How many factions have 50+ armored infantry at the start of the game?
Kairos definitely not. His starting position is literal hell. If you want to make the most out of it you need to be experienced and kill Teclis first and just ignore the South Pole in the early game.
Chaos Dwarfs I would also disagree because they have complicated faction mechanics that no other faction has that can be overwhelming for a new player. Also if you are playing it wrong it will be punishing for you on the campaign map. Not enough gold or armaments. Also, you need to be constantly aggressive as Chorfs to gain labour. That is the biggest problem for the new players as far as I've seen. Many new players tend to play rather defensively and safe (which isn't good tbh) but going Chorfs is like throwing someone to the water to learn how to swim.
I don't know about chaos dwarfs as a beginner faction... They're very fun and diverse, but you need an understanding of what the 'good' units are worth before you produce them, you'll have to learn how to manage mines and factories, and you're always surrounded by enemies. And the slave frontline is not forgiving either, they run away very quick.
Perhaps they're a good try for a second campaign?
I'd disagree. With the hellforge they get some nuts bonuses to units and anything on their roster can be made into a powerhouse. Balancing the economy I think will be the most difficult part for new players. And the nature of the unit caps means you not only can use a variety of units, you'll be forced to.
@@sassyviking6003i’m a new player, I started like a week ago. I would not touch chaos dwarves with a 3ft pole. Lots and lots of mechanics I don’t get.
@@gir1573 I'm a vet of the game and felt the same way when I picked them up, but it's really not bad.
Basically a blend of Cathay, Dark elves and dwarves
@@sprintstothebathroomdaily2429 When the description is a bland of several different races it probably is that bad, we are discussing beginner friendly, Chaos dwarfs are not beginner friendly as they have a ton of advanced mechanics and rely on weak chaff to frontline.
The last time I played chaos dwarves I get waaagh form Grimgor in the early game. Not much I can do with the starting army when he come at me with two 40 stack
That Kislev and Tzinch recommendations are very weird ones. These are one the hardest campaigns! Chaos dwarfs are just too complicated and overloaded with mechanics. So definitely not for the beginners. Here is my top 5 noob friendly factions list.
5. Beastmen. Very agrissive and straightforward army. The main selling point of beastmen is that you don't have much to manage. Their units are totally free, they don't have public order issues at all and they don't even need to engage in diplomacy. Just roll around, burn down everything and have fun! Pick Taurox or Malagor they are very powerful legendary lords.
4. Dwarfs. This is the opposite side. Dawi army is very tough and defensive: their infantry can hold the lines while missiles and artillery blast the SHEISSE out of your enemies. Low growth is a problem but economy is one the best. Choose Thorek or Grombrindal as your legendary lords and start completing the grudges!
3. Lizardmen. They have a strong versitile roster: great infantry, lots of flying units, skirmishes as well, some cavalry and a huge variety of large DINOSAURS. Lords and heroes are amazing too. Economy and growth are poor tho. If you are a big fan of DINOSAURS than play Kroq-Gar or Gor-Rok.
2. High Elves. Heavy missile focused faction but infantry, cavalry and monsters are very solid as well. Thier influence mechanics allows to recruit a very powerful lords and heroes with unique traits which can buff the whole faction. Units are kinda expensive but economy is amazing, you get a huge income from trade. Tirion and Alariel are absolute powerhouses especially with the sword of Khaine.
1. Greenskins. They don't have as much armor and leadership as the dwarfs, their missiles are not as great as high elves and skaven, their cavalry isn't as strong as French, their artillery isn't as destructive as Empire's but their versatility, their tactical performance are truly DA BEST. Because they are cruel but cunning and cunning but cruel. Their units are cheap, have some handy scrap upgrades and economy is surprisingly good for a faction that can't trade at all. WAAAAGH is very helpful both in battle and on the map as you get a factionwide buffs for trophies. If you want to paint the world in green than Grom and Wurrzag are your boys.
Disagree on Beastmen and Dwarves, Beastmen aren't really beginner friendly for the exact reasons you have listed and that they're not that forgiving in the actual battles, they're forgiving on the campaign map but not in the battles themselves, and Dwarves don't have the flexibility, and variety for beginners to really learn the basics of the game and as Zerk said, they are too forgiving, the other three I agree with
Yeah, one of his criteria was that the faction should utilize most if not all the core Total War mechanics that are common to most races. As you say, Beastmen have no diplomacy, little economy / recruitment costs to manage, no public order issues, and so on. Any one of those would rule them out by that definition of as broad a learning experience as possible.
Recommending Kairos Fateweaver for new players is absolutely insane.
Out of all the Chaos Lords, Kairos is by far the most complex character, starting in a very rough position that forces you to deal with Teclis early on in your campaign, no easy task for any new player. On top of this there are many complex campaign mechanics such as changing of ways, winds of magic manipulation and unique build trees different from most other factions. The fact that you would recommend his campaign to new players makes me question your understanding of the game as a whole, that's how absurd it is.
I love Kairos, his campaign is very thematic and chaotic, but I wouldn't recommend Kairos for anyone who haven't already completed a few campaigns.
Did you watch the video, your comment makes question your understanding of everything he said
Another reason Empire, Dawi or Cathay aren't good for beginners is the understanding of how line of sight works, formations, and positioning to effectively field gunpowder units will be too much for a beginner to learn. Elf archers don't have that problem so beginners can focus on other parts of the battle.
This, 100%. I really struggled to get good at TWW and even dropped it for a long while, because a lot of experts will put gunpowder units in top-tier positions when it comes to value for the price, but they are incredibly hard to use for a new player that doesn't know how to create firing lanes. The High Elf campaign was the first one that I ever beat, and started to make me feel like I might be able to figure the game out.
Cathay has plenty of powerful archer units though, at multiple tiers too. Jade crossbows are available very early, and celestial crossbows are very powerful in the endgame. They only have two gunpowder infantry units, one of them has very short range and the other is a sniper, so LOS isn't that much of an issue.
Their roster is flexible enough that a new player can try gunpowder infantry without really relying on them.
I have to disagree with Cathay. It was my first and having 0 total war experience. I was hooked and now I have 1k hours and have done at least every short victory. I even beat the realms of chaos several times. It’s good because it helps you understand frontline, how anti infantry works and most importantly for all order factions.. how gunpowder units work. They also have some decent spells including healing.
The Kairos campaign is brutal. I wanted to play Tzeentch, but was struggling hard to get back quickly enough to defend against Oxy, after taking out Slaanesh. All those regions are like 6 turns away from your capital, and by the time you reach the eastern edge, Oxy declares war on you. I know it can be done, but it is quite challenging. I plan on coming back to it, but am playing Belakor at the moment. Way easier, and i can still play with Tzeentch units and a better front line.
Saw a post about a stategy for the early game, of not putting any money into your starting province, as oxy will hit it hard, and instead investing in the slaanesh province first, as its more secure.
What I do with kairos is ignore the slaanesh faction, you can get easy non aggression by selling them a settlement so they won't attack you. Either the last nurgle one you take or by changing ways one of their settlements to yourself and selling it back, or selling them the last nurgle settlement and then changing that back to yourself. Go back and wipe them out with a second army after dealing with teclis and oxy. Obviously a new player isn't going to do this but just a suggestion. You can also use this settlement selling trick to vassalize factions who would otherwise hate you which is fun fun.
@@Zylos3 thanks boss, that sounds solid
To be honest, Kairos is the symbol of suffering first and happiness later. Kairos' starting position is a disaster on Very Hard (I'm not sure if playing on Easy - Normal things would be different).
A little bit of my experience when playing Kairos, there are 4 main problems I have to solve in the first 10 - 20 turns. Nurgle and Slaanesh Faction from the east, Oxyotl from the west and Teclis from the north.
If you decide to take over the entire Nurgle Faction, Teclis will clear the Tzeentch Faction and declare war on you, at this point Teclis will have a full stack on your sea/land and you will have a tough battle(1). After the battle, you will have to head to the capital of Teclis and deal with the garrison accompanied by more than half a stack of newly recruited troops, this siege is almost impossible unless you make the most out of Kairos (2).
(Tzeentch's army at the beginning of the game is a failure when it comes to sieges).
After that battle, disaster will await you in your capital, as you see Oxyotl has taken care of your allies in the west and is heading towards your capital with 2 full stacks. And if you don't do diplomacy first, Slaanesh Faction will also declare war on you at the same time and advance from the east (3).
Welp, at least that was my first experience with Kairos. On my second playthrough, I tried a new strategy. After conquering the second territory of Nurgle(The one located next to the sea), I signed a temporary peace with Nurgle, earned some gold from it and immediately headed to the capital of Teclis. At this time, Teclis's main army will be busy dealing with the Tzeentch Faction, so it will be unable to defend the capital. After capturing the unguarded capital, your job is to defeat Teclis's main army and return to your capital. Prepare for the slowly approaching Oxyotl.
(Also remember to sign a non-aggression pact with Slaanesh, in addition the remaining territory of Nurgle will also be a buffer zone to stop Slaanesh while you are dealing with Oxyotl.)
Hope It will help someone in need. If you have a better strategy, feel free to correct me xd.
I’m currently playing a kairos campaign myself, and I didn’t find it to bad tbh. Dunno if I got super lucky that oxyotl called in tiqtaqto into the war instead of the slann or kroqgar though
If you want to learn the basics of total war, I feel Chaos Dwarfs are a horrible choice. Their economy is a lot more management than any other faction and their military recruitment works different to almost every faction as well. Hella strange pick
every free campiagn
Yes, you shouldn't buy any dlc until you are bored of the base factions.
Seeing how Immortal Empires cost $180 without sales, I wouldn’t call any campaign free!
@@Astroman10 You only need to to buy WH3 to play immortal empires.
@@Astroman10😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
@@nedimogul6935 oh I see they patched that. Good on them!
Few wierd recomendations imo, Kairos is a bit wierd as another poster mentioned. but tbh i think Lizardmen is also wierd with the criteria that you put out because they have quite a non-standard army.
My first campaign was Ikit Claw, I don't regret it, and playing Skaven has taught me that routing isn't the end, and monsters are very versatile, however no flying and the only "cav" is war machines and the rat hounds, it was a riot and loved every second of it. From using the Warpstone for nukes, to embedding it with the Engineers, but the empire has taught me the importance of using heroes and imbedding them into armies and not just a lord and a doom stack of Poison Wind Mortars, a new goal for a new campaign.
Faction that helped me learn best on how to play is tomb kings. They have a balanced roster with alot of chaff, mix of magic, chariots, constructs, artillery, and some cavalry. They have some of everything and if you lose, can rebuild army fairly quickly. Can do a bit of everything.
Idea for new challenge video:
Finish the campaign of Kairos with only vanilla Tzeentch. No DLC stuff allowed.
Maybe a bit too heavy on the battle focus. I'd say Katarin and Kairos would be a massive issue for a new player in terms of wars they get in quite early. You take Fort Jakova as Katarin and you border Azhag and Drycha on what, turn 2-3? It will heavily depend on the player if they get into one war there or two. Drycha is a nightmare to fight on the battlefield. Throt will declare war by turn 10 I guess as well. Kairos needs to rush back to defend vs Oxyotl and Teclis after securing the east flank. When it comes to their campaign situation, these two factions (Kaarin and Kairos) are likely in the top 10 most difficult. Which is why I love them but for a beginner no way I'd recommend them. Cathay seems fine to me as a recommended campaign, Miao/Zhao are not too difficult, solid rosters as well. Dwarfs I would not call too easy based only on their simplicity in battle, a few of those campaigns make up for it with their difficult campaign map situations. For a new player: absolutely do not play Belegar 😂
The Kairos recommendation is insane
Nah guys easiest start is Skrolk everybody knows clan rats > saurus. Trust me.
I just started a new Skrolk campaign today and was surprised at how much easier it was than I remembered. Probably had some luck with Gor'Rok going after the dwarves rather than me, but two armies stacked with Plague Monks before turn 10 turns pretty much everything into mulch.
@@Ares42 nah honestly his campaign is so much easier than wh2, and I don't honestly know why.
Like a true skaven would say😂
@@Frederatorr Because everybody hates Skaven, and Lustria-Bowl is no more.
@@Frederatorr he has a few minor factions as a buffer between him and Gor-Rok in 3 instead of being right on his doorstep, gives you a little more time to prepare and get some decent units rather than trying to use Skavenslaves to fight Saurus which you were basically forced to do in 2... I think he even starts off at war with you in 2 as well, so he'll be on your ass almost instantly.
Noooo Kairos is one of the hardest starting campaigns in the game
Its up there with Franz pre 5.0 and the Kislev priest
Honestly, if you non aggression the slannesh faction, they usually give you enough time to deal with oxyotl and get back
@@AdamMcLaughlin-yi1dfI feel like Kairo is hated by the entire map. The slannesh always fked me in the ass if i dont wipe them out even when i pay for the non aggression pact
@@HaoThienKinh Coming from Slannesh, it should be obvious it will end up fucking your ass haha
Use the change of ways. It will be a lot easier for Kairos.
Cathay was my first campaign. Learned a lot and still learning.
Khorne is great, minimum amount of territory upkeep and basically just wage war. Super simple and easy lol
Are you learning by yourself or watching a video and playing along with it. Im struggling to pick up any lord and play cause i dont understand at all
@@lukegaming1154 high elves are great for pick up and go, easy to learn mechanics with them and the units are pretty humanistic. Khorne is also good, never really have to worry about territory upkeep, just keep your armies going
@@lukegaming1154please try Tyrion he overhaul the beginner faction and his campaign very forgiving if u make mistakes
Cathay is pretty fun. Just finished a Yuan Bo campaign. Hadn't played them since launch, and I ended up spamming Jade Warriors with Gate Masters in a lot of my armies.
I agree with Kislev, High elves and Lizardmen. I am a little on the fence about Chorfs and Tzeentch. I guess Tzeentch has barriers, but those can be hard to utilize
Honestly some of these picks are really questionable.
The only ones I agree with on this list are Tyrion and Gorok.
If you're new player for WH3 here's a better list:
- Tyrion
- Gorok
- Valkyia
- Thorek
- Rakarth
All of these lords are in very comfy positions where you can think more clearly of your next move.
When you're new, you want a campaign that sort of funnels you in to going a specific direction.
Having too many paths can be distracting for a new player which is why these campaigns work so well.
I generally agree, except that I'd exclude any WoC character from that list by the sheer fact that they play very unconventional with their focus on Dark Fortresses and vassalization. Also, the whole Gifts of Chaos system is explained rather poorly ingame.
@vahlen
I agree with WoC settlement mechanics working a bit differently but they're a good start imo because they're strong. You'll learn to sack and occupy because you don't lose anything by sacking instead of any other order faction. Because of this you have a pretty strong economy and high level armies and heroes/lords.
They're among the most fun too when it comes to monsters and sheer power.
You'll get to play and coordinate attacks with allies too, form easy alliances and so on, where you need to work for it with other factions.
Their chaos boons system isn't hard to understand, pretty straightforward buffs you just keep activated and you unlock more of them to use at the same time via tech tree.
@@nyrva2876 The point of the video was to not recommend strong, mindless factions. Or factions where mistakes cripple you too much. Or needlessly confusing ones. WoC, despite being my favorite faction (Shock troops with protoss shield anyone?), sadly manages to all three. Doubly so with Valkya.
1. It is a rush faction.
2. One where recruiting an army of troops tier 2 needs manually controlling Lords recruiting every turn from 7 fortresses all over the place for 12 turns.
3. One that can't undo giving a mark, meaning your Chaos Warriors of Khorne with Halberds will have to shove their anti-large bonus in their arses when they become Chosen.
Me, with over 2000hrs between wh2 and 3 and still refuses to use cavalry:
Neat, another zerkovich video🎉
Always good to have at least one fast harassment unit just to peel away their backlines, that said you can do the same with certain single entity monsters/lords
My friend plays with the exact same style as you do. He'll use monsters, fliers and stuff, but NEVER cavalry.
@@KnightMan222Gyrocopters are just flying horses with guns 😂
What's up with that, how come some people don't use cav?
@@Tuck213 Most of them aren't cute enough. Or they're meh.
Strongly disagree with this list in large parts. Kairos is one of the hardest campaigns currently, and he only has a good unit selection if you have the DLCs. Chaos Dwarfs campaigns are too burdened by the plethora of additional mechanics and unit caps to be beginner-friendly. Lizardmen don't teach players anything about ranged combat, and their roster is too single entity-focused to be a good representation of Order faction gameplay. Kislev faces way too many strong enemies early on, and needs a lot of time to get their economy rolling, while also suffering from pretty crap units in the early game.
Honestly, the only beginner-friendly lord is Tyrion. Strong economy, relatively safe starting position, and a roster that covers all the basics of combat in W3.
I do think it's good to try and find more options to offer new player than just Tyrion though, because not everyone wants to play Tyrion (I absolutely never would've got into this game if I'd had to start with him, I'm all about bad guys all the time... WH2 Queek was definitely not the ideal learning experience but I had enough fun to come back for more). That said yeah I dunno about some of these, telling noobs to play Kairos almost feels like a prank lol. I guess Greenskins, one of the non-gimmicky ones, might be another decently well rounded race for new players?
I also think rather than trying to find one faction that's perfect for everything it might be worth asking new players which ones they're interested in and then giving some context for what they'll learn from that. For example, if someone really desperately wants to play the Vampire Counts first, that's obviously not gonna teach them anything about missiles or artillery; but they are gonna learn a lot about cavalry and magic, and they're way less likely to bounce off and uninstall than if they force themselves to play High Elves even though it doesn't sound fun to them. So just making sure people know what their chosen faction will and won't teach them when they start the campaign could go a long way toward easing the learning curve/
I learned how to play the game as Katarin it was hard but very fun and now kislev has a special place in my heart. I enjoy playing them the most
I don't think there's anything wrong with recommending Cathay as a beginner faction. Yes they have a simple playstyle, but that will enable newer players to learn important mechanics like LoS and terrain without panicking over microing everything. They have everything in their roster bar monstrous infantry so it can all be experimented with at a player's leisure. Also think you sold their frontline short - Jade Warriors are some of the best generic infantry in the game, you can set them up and they'll do their job for a long old while without oversight. Zhao Ming also has a very forgiving start position, particularly now Gelt has been moved near him. I'd have no trouble suggesting him to a new player.
The Empire I'd hesitate to, but only because Karl Franz still has a very challenging start position.
So glad Gor Rok got a shout out. I love sending him and Kroak to wreck entire settlement garrisons, saving his army for field battles. 😂
Beastmen is good for learning the game. Free army upkeep. Hidden encamp stance. Increased ambush chance.
i would almost agree except they only have one unit that actually is ranged and the only cavalry they have is light armored monsters that are really just used for taking out routers and disrupting weak backlines. they've almost as micro intensive as the greenskins
I am not sure, as the most powerful strategy by far is to run around only really taking ambush fights, at which point your swarming gors from all sides will rip through most anyone with ease. The faction is rather bush reliant because with low leadership and lack of armor your troops are just pretty explicitly worse in a fair fight.
I like Beastmen but I disagree. They're so unlike other factions that when you transition back to a more standard faction you'll struggle with things like upkeep and public order.
I strongly disagree. You mentioned criteria for why they might be "easy", but as Zerkovich mentioned when speaking about the Dwarves, this is not about just being easy, that's only one of the criteria, it's also about teaching you how to play the game. And since the Beastmen are one of the most unique race in the game with being the only true horde left and having cap units, it's a bad idea to start the game with them.
I agree with beastmen it's just an introduction faction with a amount of games mechanics. Once you have learn those basic skills you can move to a more advanced faction. Beastmen, to Ghorst to elf faction on the donut, this would give a stepped progression to more advanced game mechanics.
the kairos spot made me check if the video was by chance released on April 1st
Clearly Chad Franz is the best choice whether you're a novice or a veteran
I'm sure this video is full of good information, but there's a couple things I have discrepancies with.
2:55 - I could be wrong, but artillery (Helstorm Rockets featured here) is a higher tier weapon meaning you have to work up to them. You'll get your opportunity to play with "infantry and cavalry and using all your units properly" while you progress up toward them.
3:23 - Not being reliant on "experimenting with aggressive builds" or different tactics is absolutely perfect for a new player who is probably just trying to come to grips with moving an army around in general. Saying that's bad for a new player because once they play any other faction it'll be different is like saying the Huns from Age of Empires 2 are a bad beginner civilization because they don't need to build houses. New players have enough on their minds in both of those games. Not needing to remember to build houses or command cavalry in Warhammer is actually a good thing to help them zone in on getting to grips with other things. After a Dwarf player feels comfortable enough with the bare basics they can hop on over to something like Bretonnia if they want to then focus on cavalry.
I think you're taking the wrong angle here when it comes to how to ease new players into the game. I think this is a case of an experienced person forgetting where they themselves started from.
My first ever faction I played with is dwarves in WH2, and then I assumed this game is just napoleon total war but with a fantasy paintjob
It’s made me realise the importance of positioning & proper formations, so that’s a grudging
Love your channel but this is objectively an awful list. Recommending Chaos Dwarfs to a new players is crazy. Those factions require a lot of resource management and planning. You have been playing this game for so long that you have no clue how overwhelming this stuff is for new players.
After playing my first campaign as astrogoth after some 100 hours on warhammer I was fucking lost
Chaos dwarf is fun but I felt like I wasn’t playing right the entire time lol
Kairos? I am not quite sold about that one. His position is pretty difficult, especially without the dlc (that new players probably won’t have). His abilities are also a bit complicated, as is his the range focused army (to a beginner at least).
1:14 I still remember picking Vampire Counts as my first campaign in Warhammer 1 and have no idea what I am doing even after 30 turns. Switched to Greenskins and immediately understand how the game works. VC is so bad for judging strength of units
Honestly, these suggestions aren't great.
Kairos has one of the worst start positions in the game, and a new player can easily get killed off due to having enemies on both sides, as well as teclis and sometimes lizardmen coming from over the sea.. And Katarin is surrounded by strong enemies, azhag, moulder, drycha, norsca and chaos all ready to charge, while the minor empire factions and kislev die so easily and aren't much help. Both campaigns I've seen so many "help i'm dying" posts about, their relatively weak eco doesn't help either.
Also, your justification for not including cathay is a bit weak. Their frontline is honestly pretty solid thanks to the ying-yang bonuses. Not going to win any awards, but it's fine. And zhao mings start position is excellent, with loads of nice allies nearby, and economy is good as well, meaning you can have more armies.
Astrogath is a bad choice, not because of start position or anything, but because of how complex chaos dwarves are. They have so many different resources, so many ways to trade them, even 3 different settlement types. They're probably the most complex faction in the entire game. Really interesting and fun, but i'd never recommend them to a beginner for that reason, just too complex to start out with.
Tyrion/gor-rok sure. I'd include zhao ming and grimgor. Both have fairly simple start positions, good economy and not overly complex factions, as well as a fairly varied roster.
My first faction and first win was with Settra. I just spent my whole campaign ramming chariots into people, not sure I learned much about how to play, but I had a lot of fun.
First time I actually disagree with a Zerk video. Kairos's start position is pretty hard for beginners and Cathay can teach all the fundamentals while having a better front line than empire. I would say dwarfs are good precisely because of their tanky nature, it teaches you basics and while you will have to adapt to less tanky front line for other factions, but that doesn't mean they arent good to learn the game with imo.
Play as the Elves?
This is just another Elgi scheme.
This is no time for short-sightedness, my guy
@@Brother_O4TSSHORT ?? there will be no playing elves.
@@Brother_O4TS SHORT??!!! No multiplayer!
@@Brother_O4TS Oh that's going in the book
@@Brother_O4TS
*Grumbling intensifies*
kairos and katarina are really tough
i think chaos dwarves are not beginner friendly for the sole reason of multiple currencies, yes they are very powerful but i think it can be very overwhelming to try to balance different kinds of settlements on a first playthrough
Play as the skaven, throw yourself in the deep end and if you drown at least you'll drown the enemy with your sea of skaven corpses.
It's also such a nice change when you play a faction that has good infantry for once.
3:24 Thats going in the book!!!
I really disagree on Cathay, the peasants units may be weak but the jade units make for a really sturdy frontline.
Their start is also quite forgiving with lots of allies and relatively few enemies.
And the current version of harmony is really easy to understand and apply.
All in all, while my first recommendation would be Tyrion, Cathay would be n°2 or 3.
At the very least they're much better than Kislev or the Chaos Dwarfs which are either pretty bad with a weird hybrid roster and unfun mechanics or way too complex and locked behind a DLC.
Tomb Kings I'd argue are a good faction to begin with. You get pretty much every single unit type but you don't have to worry about economy. It teaches players well on army diversity without bankrupting them.
You also fight a huge variety of enemies depending on your lord of choice. Unlike dwarves that can be stuck grinding against greenskins and skaven forever.
If there was a single free Tomb king, I’d agree with you. Alas, they are DLC only last I checked and paying extra for your training wheels feels like bad advice. Only the core factions should probably be considered.
@@g4manhere553Tomb Kings came with WH2 … since this video covers Immortal Empires, you need WH2 to play.
Problem with the Tomb Kings is their Crumbling mechanic may not be beginner friendly
@@Astroman10 they were not a base WH2 faction, they were a race pack DLC. also immortal empires doesn't require all 3 games, just WH3
@@dchumbo4207haha ok so they are a race pack DLC. I was wrong. But IE requires all three games! That’s the point and major complaint of it.
11:20 the Germans didn't get you, but the Normans did 😆
"Kairos is a good starter lord and cathay's front line isn't good. Chaos dwarfs, the most complicated faction on the campaign map, are also a good first time faction" Well, those sure are some takes you can have.
I was with you for most of this, but I'm going to hard disagree with the Chaos Dwarf recommendation. Their early game is brutal since you can barely field any strong units, the economy management is way different and way more complicated than any other faction (which is not going to help a new player understand how the economy works for factions in general), and as a Chaos aligned faction, almost everybody hates you (including Grimgor). I have never played a Chaos Dwarf game where Grimgor didn't declare war on me by turn 30.
I would suggest Yuan Bo as a substitute. Your start position is way more comfortable and favorable with a good number of potential allies around, the edge of the map guarding your Western border for you, a standard economy and the balanced unit roster you were talking about, with the addition of a smattering of large single entities and flying units to cut your teeth on if you want to dabble in those.
To each their own though; everyone is going to have a slightly different opinion on this kind of thing, just giving my two cents.
Always nice to open UA-cam and see "Zerkovich uploaded a new video". After all this time you still come up with new ideas for videos, awesome!
My two cents here...
1.) Tyrion and basically any high elf campaign is easy.
2.) Gor-Rok is ok. Last defenders is also easy. They got 3/4 secure flanks and Kalida and the vampires are a joke. And then you got a strong base to stomp the world. Oxyotl is also a beast but ok, you gotta have half a brain to play with him.
3.) I would not rate any chaos dwarf as easy to play. They are a very strong faction but they are not easy. They need patience, you gotta be able to face early-mid game with armies that field a lot of crap units and a handful of elites. You don't need to be a genius player but you gotta know some stuff about the game to do that. Plus they got a lot of mechanics and they get attacked from all sides in higher difficulties.
4.) Kairos... ehm... ehm... True he got genuinely one of the best starting armies and early tzeench armies absolutely stomp opposition (if you got the right DLC). However... They got no economy and you will have to make the most of that early advantage because they are coming for you from all sides. Oxyotl is no joke and the the rest of your opponents are no joke either. And they will outnumber you. To make a joke out of the campaign you need to know how to play and also how to utilize your powers.
5.) Kislev? Really? No. Just no. All Kislev campaigns are brutal. No two ways about it. You will be attacked from all sides, you will have to face some of the toughest enemies at once. And you got no allies. Your army is ok but warriors of chaos are better and their heroes are stronger. All Kislev campaigns are genuinely among the hardest ones. If there is a single noob that can last more than 20 turns in one, I have yet to meet this person. If you are new to the game, for your own sake, please stay away from Kislev. These campaigns are hard even for people that easily win other campaigns.
My suggestions
1.) Any high elf. Especially on the island. You beat everyone, noone can touch you. Profit.
2.) Any beastman. Especially Taurox. Read his mechanics for 5 minutes. Build the best units you can. Point and click. Win. Repeat. Many times.
3.) Last defenders. Solid flanks. Solid army. Easy opponents. Advance and dominate.
4.) Grimgor. He is a damage dealer and a tank at the same time. And starting orcs are very good. Just attack and steamroll opposition. He will snowball too. Grom is also supposedly easy but the AI is too aggressive against him and you got 3 opponents in turn 3 or something. If you manage to beat that, you are good though. All the orcs are decently easy anyway.
5.) Archaon. Is there anything that can stop him really? The answer is no.
6.) Ikkit claw. Just do it. The other skaven are not that hard either (ok maybe the rat ogre guy is). But Ikkit is a beast. And his capital is one of the best cities on the map. If not the best.
Noob traps
1.) No Skarbrand. He can be a beast in turn 5 or something. But you absolutely gotta know what you are doing to achieve that. If you don't, you got a constantly underlevelled lord, chasing his tail and pondering why you lack the funds for even one stack when everyone got like 3-4.
2.) No chaos demons of any kind. They need their mechanics to be good. And their starting positions are not easy.
3.) No empire. That is accurate. Though our man Karl has received a buff and the rest are in a better state too.
4.) No Brettonia. Many will be attracted to the knights aesthetic. Brettonia is really lackluster though and it will disappoing most new players.
We didn't have the same kind of campaign with Tzeentch, I'm always fighting off 2 full stack of lizardmen to the left and having to repeal Teclis' invasion far to my right. And that's not even considering Slaanesh to the far right pushing since it takes at least 4 turns of forced marched to bring Karos from the front line to deal with them... Never have time to bring my settlement and military building to tier 3 to recruit Chaos Warriors with Halberd to deal with the single entity dino the lizardmen have. I find it almost has hard has Nurgle
Thanks for the video !
I mostly agree as well. Kislev, I might not have had much luck, but I find the campaign pretty tough to start with, pretty hard to defend your territory on a lengthy campaign.
Maybe I am just bad also 😂
Kislev as a starting faction? I pray for any new player that listens to this video
I mean Katerin is alright, not the easiest in the game but not exactly the hardest, and no convoluted mechanics with kislev for a new player to balance in the way that Chaos Dwarves or skaven do
@@ProFoolmaneven with said mechanics the chaos dwarves are far easier than Kislev, S+ tier roster even with shitstacks and all territory is green, easy start positions for all lords, build literally any building and your economy is fine, crazy tech tree etc, Kislev is getting wave after wave of Norsca and demons and chaos dwarves coming from red territory you can never advance into
The community regards Kislev-Tzarina_Katarin & Tzeentch-Kairos as some of the most challenging campaigns.
Though Kislev got a little breather, with Malakai plugging the North up a little.
Would disagree on Kislev. Tough starting position. Hostile factions all around, need to know where to go first to secure the borders. You have vampires, tree kin and Festus at the South, orcs and ogres at the East, rats and huge amount of chaos factions at the North. It's too much for new player, especially a passive one.
P.S. not talking about easy difficulty though, i meant normal\hard and up.
Wood Elves would have been my go to. they're a good faction with a good economy and a vast array of unit types and magic. it does kinda oversimplify knowing how to manage territories since they can be played in a "raze and forget" kind of manner but otherwise i'd say they are great for learning to play with.
at the same time is it very hard for a new player to understand that you can use the worldroots to traverse the world and get more forests to incfrease your economy, thereby making the game simpler. I have a friend whom I am playing with a lot lately, his totaly new never played anything alike this game, and he had a big struggle with playing wood elves when he tried them. I believe that the dwarfs are without doubt the easiest to play and that is what he ended up playing and he loved it and now he refuse to play other races haha.
Although you're correct that they're a relatively easy faction to play, that was not the main criterion for Zerkovich. Wood Elves have probably the most unique campaign of the game and their gameplay is way too weird for new players to really learn something about the game by playing them...
@@Indolthir so are the chorfs yet he put them on there
@@zacharybecker8228 Exactly. I would not have picked them either. Very specific.
Yeah wood elves are very specific.
You need to be aggressive in total war Warhammer, with wood elves you'll learn that leaving your forests is painful. (bad settlements outside of the woods)
So you'd think you have to stay there or find other forests via teleportation which is unique to them.
Basically, defending settlements outside of forests is next to impossible and they don't yeald much anyway but you don't want someone else take those settlements so it's a bit weird for a new player.
Yo these are some hot takes. Like yes, the Kislev roster is really good for beginners, but the start positions for alot of lords are brutal. I just straight up disagrees with Kairos, thats the hottest take. Way too leaning into magic, which for alot of beginners isn't super what you need to focus on when there way more fundamental parts of the game they are already trying to learn. I also don't think starting with super easy armies like dwarfs is a bad thing. Alot people need to that easy first step to grow into more complex factions.
Kairos also relies a lot on ranged units that are squishy and medium range. Elves with their stupid 180 range or silver shielded AP XBows are way more forgiving for a newbie.
Yes, Kairos is technically a 2-bird doomstack, but a new player wont know how to cheese with him like that, and even if the newbie did, what did we learn from that for general application other than 'magic = good'?
Kislev starting pos is a hell as well, a lot of enemies around , you really want to put a beginner against norscans chaos warriors, skaven,orcs,vampires... And their early armies not at all solid
Enjoy Zerks videos usually but definitely a miss here.
recommending katarin to learn the game on is honestly kinda crazy imo, while yes the kislev armies are more well rounded than other races, katarin has imo one of the top 10 most difficult campaigns in the game since she will likely be getting attacked at every single angle and even when she deals with those threats, there are even more threats that will come very soon afterwards (like when you kill azazel or throt, throgg is usually on his way), imo the better faction to learn the game on is any of the cathayan lords, mostly zhao and miao though, they live on probably the safest region of the game with most factions on it being either confederatable or able to be made allies (balthasar and wood elves) and once you get cathay under control, the rest of the campaign is pretty easy with the only major threats being from outside of cathay and since you already have that under control you can throw all the armies you’ve acquired out there to either defend against the threats or go on the offensive, the hardest cathay campaign is probably miao and even then it isn’t crazy difficult to deal with
Disagree with Kairos, though. The Tzeentch roster is absolutely amazing and the lore options are pretty good. But his starting economy is brutal, ie slow as fuck. Definitely switch him with Grand Cathay, specifically Zhao Ming. He has a better starting position than Miao Ying, ie no major threats nearby plus a friendly Gelt as neighbour. He also has better faction effects, ie +5 alchemist recruit rank and +15 melee armour.
Azhag. Starts between 2 potential allies thx to his diplomatic bonus (One of them being the goddamn von Carstiens). You will learn about leadership and how to use a balanced roster, quest battles and the sweet bonuses they give, and the greenskins especially have a nice easy tech tree/faction mechanic. Anything but Kairos lmao.
I wouldn't recommend Kairos to a begginer. Greenskins are an easy faction to begin with. They have waaghs, cheap and strong units, and no difficult mechanics.
Kislev is really balanced, easy to use, but Katarin's start can be absolute hell depending on how fast Throt wants to sprint at the walls of Kislev. If you focus Azhag early on, then Throt can snowball pretty fast (ngl Throgg feels like the only one that got speedbumped by Malakai), and if you go after Throt, then Drycha might take stuff in the southern Oblast.
easy to use starting army, but there's a reason why people asked CA to swap the recommendation from Kislev to Cathay xD
Kairos?! For Real? My man Zerk just taking the piss apparently. Try a Kairos campaign without the champions of chaos dlc and tell me how much you love fighting Slaneesh light cav as an early game hyrbid infantry faction, just before you get the joy of fighting lizardmen's light infantry extravaganza
I wouldn't recommend Kislev for beginers at all. It is one of the most unsafe strating locations there is, they tend to get invaded from many sides at the same time and their economy is not great... Which limits de number of armies they can field to respond to threats.
I .... actually have to disagree with Kislev and specifically Katarin as your first choice of campaign ^^'
Because that's what I did. A bloody n00b this was basically my first TW game and I picked Katarin in the RoC map as my first campaign. And I'm not kidding here, it took me 20 something attempts (restarting the campaign) until I finally made it through to the victory screen.
Kislev is so damn open that it's a horror trying to defend your territory with just one army, because you can't even afford a second army by turn 20 yet. On top of that, South Drycha, South East Azhag, South West Festus, North Valkia (an absolute Terror!) North North West Throt, a bit further Throgg, West Azazel.
So while your best interest is to shut down Drycha and Azagh to secure alliances with the Empire (btw good Chance Vlad shows up at your doorstep too) you'll get attacked by two WoC factions, Skaven and Norsca while you're at it and a novice in this game with absolutely scramble (and probably collapse) under that pressure.
So, no, Kislev isn't a good starting campaign at all ^^'
And even for Lizardmen, I'd actually say Tehenauhin (or Oxyotl with DLC) is "easier" as he starts in a very secure corner of the map as well. His campaign mechanics might screw you over a bit though.
WTF those are weird choices!
Tyrion and Gor-Rok are ok but they're WH2 factions and no one trying the game is going to buy the full package at one!
Katarin and Kairos both got hard and challenging starting positions in IE.
Chaos Dwarfs on top of being locked behind a paywall are one of the most mechanic-heavy factions in the game and has unique and different economy!
The only fairly easy base-game campaign with well-rounded roster is not mentioned here which is Zhao Ming's campaign.
My thoughts exactly. Its a pretty elitist list. Like "You should spend several hundred dollars on this game before you even play your first campaign to have fun", which just isn't true. Should have only focused on basegame factions.
I think your commendations are a bit weird.
Chaos Dwarfs are very different from the other factions and probably not good to learn the game with.
Kairos has a very harsh start and pretty much requires that you own some DLC for him to be more manageable.
I'd recommend:
Miao Ying if you're have literally no DLC. She's a very balanced faction with simple mechanics and the Cathay army is fairly standard with all kinds of units to learn.
Tyrion if you have Warhammer 2 for the same reasons Zerk said.
Balthasar Gelt if you have Warhammer 1. He's got a save and easy start position with a strong ally nearby. The empire is a very standard faction that is great for learning the game with.
Uhhhhhhh Kairos has one of the hardest starts in the entire game.
Also Chaos Dwarfs are waaaaay too complicated for beginners.
You have to understand not everyone is a glue eater that can't handle the dumbed down mechanics of chaos dwarves. Try playing older TW games or Paradox games if you want to see complex mechanics for a beginner to grasp.
@@DJ-1Q84 'older TW games'
lmao
Cathay certainly does not have a weak frontline. Don't know how you can make that conclusion.
Zerkovich is a Dwarf player in every sense of the word :p
You're nuts to recommend Katarin for a beginner. That's one of the hardest campaign starts in the game, the only few that immediately come to mind as more difficult are Daniel, Imrik and funny enough the other Kislev factions: Boris and Kostaltyn.
Also you really need to mention that your recommendations are assuming that you have ALL of the DLC for every faction. You were specifically talking about Tzangors with Kairos, and those are a unit you can only use with the Shadows of Change DLC, same thing with Kislev without that DLC Kislev doesn't have Kislevite Warriors which again makes Katarin's start a lot more difficult.
Gor-Rok is a solid recommendation though. Perfect campaign for a beginner.
If you wanna be a baddy, alternatively to Tzeentch witch I wouldn't recommend would be Khorne, especially if you don't care about the use of magic. Skarbrand's campaign is extremely entertaining and engaging, you will learn how to be aggressive, how to move efficiently with your lord (both campaign and field), and how to use the bare bones army, no magic, not much tricks just good ol' fashioned mele carnage. Skulls for the skull throne mechanic is easy and rewarding, bloodletting is pure fun and Skarbrand slaps like there's no tomorrow...and there wont be any tomorrow for your poor opponents.
Furthermore, his infrastructure and building stuff comes in a liiitle bit later into the campaign 'couse it takes time to passively occupy the settlements so you don't have to multitask and can completely concentrate on murdering the area in the begging, and then later on the infrastructure managements trickles in.
Your starting position is a bit...exposed...but that's good!! you're Khorne you like those idiots sending you skulls attached to those bodies, they got you surrounded...those poor bastards. You will be in a beautiful opportunity to level up nice and early, get money from fights and settle in the mid game.
U u Also...Kislev...sure but deff on lower difficultie levels 'couse their start position isn't as snug as it seems.
The problem with Skarbaby is that he relies on momentum and a good use of the campaign map. If you sit back at all, you will get punished hard. If you lose Skarbrand early, the game is practically over. If you let the enemy factions tech up as fast as you do, suddenly your unstoppable melee units aren't roflstomping anything they get in contact with anymore.
Skarbrand is an easy campaign to 'get good at', but for a complete noob I think Valkia is superior for learning with less stress.
First of all...Skarbaby ❤🔥
Second yes you deff don't wanna sit back, he got one speed and it's GO! I guess I dont like Valkia so much 'couse she's just a weaker Skarbubu, and I'm not a fan of her starting position either. You'll often get pulled left then right then left putting down fires so it can be confusing and frustrating picking a general direction to move your campaign, and you can end up a bit stuck and lost in your own lands during those rucial early game turns. Also I think as a warrior of chaos she's a bit too different from the average faction regarding unit recrutment and building up yo faction couse she really only focuses on the dark fortreses. With Skarbrand you do eventually get to a regular infrastructure management while Valkia stays sitting in her edgy fortreses. That being said I agree that she is not so heavily insentivised to constantly move witch deff makes her a more chill campaign.
I'd still recommend Skarbrand, but Valkia is deff a good starter pokemon if you wanna master warriors of chaos and/or want an alternative to have a bit chiller campaign but still wish to paint the world red.
"The empire has an ok starting position", meanwhile every empire campaign:
Louen takes Marienburg, Hochland gets destroyed from Festus, Averland and and Stirland get deleted from Vlad, Norscans and other deamons raid Nordland lowering your fealty and almost staring a civil war of what's left of the elector counts and you have a Changeling lurking around and you can't really do much about it at the start of the campaign because you don't have the necessary resources, so at turn 40 you are left with a destroyed empire which you have to reclaim and rebuild. Loved the experience 😜
After thrones of decay empire has become a LOT easier imo. Usually vlad steamrolls his way to my front door but my last 3 playthroughs I've just ignored him and elspeth (however you spell her name) has mopped the floor with him once he gets close. Now I just wipe out the barrow legion, make friends with louen, and then all I have to worry about is the fecundites and the occasional norscan or belakor if he manages to make it past bretonnia
I hate that the Changeling always spawns in the middle of the Empire. I would love if he spawned in eg 1 of 8 locations. He is so so so frustrating to deal with even when you know his mechanics. I cant imagine being a new player to the game and getting ambushed by the Changeling out of thin air, not knowing where the fuck he came from or why your provinces are Tzeentch revolting seemingly out of nowhere
Kairos definitely is not a noob faction. The beginning is not easy for new players
My suggestion - add a faction that is fun mechanics wise that may be otherwise simple.
I struggled with WH2 until I tried Taurox (I tried High Elves, LM, it was a lot going on).
Taurox while being broken was relatively simple with unlocking understandings of campaign mechanics - how to use melee units - got the Sword of Khaine, learned how to use abilities & magic. Despite not learning fully "how the game is played" it was invaluable for understanding how fun the game is. I think campaigns like this should be included in this list and then expanded on with the likes of Tyrion etc.
As someone who play the game since 2016 and play both campaign (legendary / very hard) and ranked MP I can tell that Zerk POV is quite interesting and true. I think economy/campaign mechanics could have been a bit more focused.
I also want to mention that it's very different to play MP from campaign and new players should be aware of it. In campaign HE are quite easy, but they are not that easy in MP. In general I also think that Cathay is also a good pick still, because unlike the empire their line and are units are quite solid (heavy armored). But to maximise their potential (aka harmony), you have still some rooms for improvement. Their economy is legit broken too and they don't have that much foes.
And I think it's important to mention that future dlc's and mods can have a signifiant impact on how a race is played.
I learned the game with Greasus Goldtooth, because for the first 30 turns or so, melee brute force is all you need, and by the time you're getting ready to need ranged and power options, you have access to some very good and simple ones like giants and leadbelchers
I would've avoided using any dlc factions or factions that lean on dlc's like Kairos. These are new players who are learning the game and paying for a dlc is probably out of the question until they know they want to keep playing.
Proceeds to play high elves with only archers
Tzeentch and kislev are some of the hardest to play, I'd replace tzeentch with Zhao Ming, and kislev with the Greenskins, playing wurrzag for example. Chaos Dwarfs are also a very poor choice since they take a while to take off, and they are one of if not the faction that has the most things to manage, so recommending them is baffling.
HE teaches defensive armies, but no arty dinamics besides their one piece, but yes easy first faction;
Lizardmen teaches monster rush faction dynamics, and they are juggernauts, meaning they tank as much as they deal damage, so easy starter;
Cathay brings full defensive formation tactics with artillery, but not as much coddling as dwarfs;
Greenskins teach Horde rush tactics with some starter in cav dynamics, so imo, deez iz da bestest.
Definitely agree with gor-rok. On the easy side, but still has some good challenges to learn on.
The campaign i recommend for a new player its the changeling, you can't even lose the campaign if you fk up, i think its the most easy and fast to learn LL
Cathay has no forgiving army?
Hmmm, i would disagree.
Their Jade-Warriors are amazing if you want to learn the game and if all fall in disarray, their lords can save the day on their own, if needed. They have cavalary, which is ok and the caravan system gives you nice extra money and items.
Easy starting position with corner of the map and a lot of friends. Also skaven as one of the main threads are easy little wantans for your army.
So i would say, Cathay is definitely one of the easiest starting and learning factions you can choose.
Tyrion yes pretty easy campaign. Dwarfs good in general for new players because they need at least some understanding from the start.Kairos definitely not for beginners you need a dlc woc just to be able to utilize his strong magic and without SoC dlc have no replenishment until turn 25 . Dwarfs of chaos definitely not for beginners pretty complicated economy army composition and etc. me with 1000 hours of game experience really struggled at the start . Their playstyle is unique army recruitment is unique they have army cap which only suitable for DOC and tomb kings. Grand Cathay is absurdly strong but for the begginers its a good starting point
Dont agree with Chaos Dwarfs, the additional ressources, unit caps and upgrades might overwhelm a new player. Kislev is also a bit off, as you will be attacked from pretty much all sides.
Not recommending dwarfs for the reasons provided, then recommending Itza is a very odd assessment.
Itza Saurus spam with E-Z-peezy, no friendly fire kroak nukes is one of the easiest, cheesiest and least tactically demanding campaigns in the game lol.
Doesn’t make sense man lol
Kairos? I dont know for lower difficulties but even Legend himself (and I also played so I could test it myself), at least in VH/VH, oxyotol has pretty strong armies making your start pretty rough for new players, you have also to fight slaanesh, literally tzeentch counterwich can be troublesome for newbies.
Kairos is pretty hard to play imo, I would have put Grimgor as a good choice, he's a beast and you get units so easily a defeat isn't really a problem !
>Grand Cathay
>Not Very Forgiving Army
I’m sorry, but what? Jade Warriors are stupid easy to recruit, and don’t even need buffs to hold against basically anything in the game. Cathay is practically a “set up and forget” army. I do think that Cathay’s army isn’t well balanced, but they’re definitely not unforgiving by any metric. I’d argue they’re closer to Dwarves in terms of forgiveness with battles than they are to Empire
Can't say I'd recommend Kairos. You invariably end up in a a two front war against stack after stack of lizardmen which are pretty good against tzeentch. Even in the beginning you have to rush down the eastern parts of the south pole really quickly and then rush back west to confront oxyotl or you'll loose your capital. I wouldn't exactly call that beginner friendly.
Which is not to say that Karios/Tzeentch isn't incredibly fun with exceedingly powerful late game armies and campaign abilities. Just the beginning is really tough if you don't know what you're in for.
And good Lord Tzarina Katarin? Are you out of your damn mind? That has one of the most hard, and with Throt, downright annoying campaign starts in the game. Why would you ever recommend that to a beginner? I have over 2000 hours and find that one of the shittiest starts. Pre 5.0 Kugath is easier than this.
Chaos Dwarfs are also not for beginners since they have a completely different economy.
Truly some bizarre picks.
Just play Wurzag.
The economy of greenskins is the simplest out of all factions, and their gameplay embodies the total war basics, by the time you've familiarized yourself with the rock paper scissors formula you will have access to giants which teach you how single entities work, trolls which teach you how monstrous infantry work and their shitty artillery, which still teaches you how artillery works.
Savage Orcs are really good under Wurzag but aren't outright OP like other units and force you to strategize.
Meanwhile Wurzag being a caster type character, and one of the best, you learn how magic works and there is both the offensive stuff Wurzag excells at and the more subtle but decisive buffs and debuffs showcased by the night goblin shaman.
I'm teaching my father to play and Wurzag is making it all very digestible for him.
Tzeench mechanic is OP. I played Kairos and all wants to have a piece of me. He's like a god, a faction declares war and the next thing you know he can't move his army. Another faction declares war and the next turn we are at peace 😅😅. The changing of ways is really an OP mechanic. You get to choose your wars allowing you to expand rapidly without having to fight many factions at once.
Best starting Campaign is without doubt Heinrich Kemmler just trust me
Yeah, Katarin is much easier now as Malakai comes to take her role as the true defender as the world.
Before that, Katarin would still in Oblast in turn 100 struggling with Full might of Chaos and Demons and unlimited Norsca Monkeys and Chaso Dwarfs and even Vlad could pay you a visit from south.
I have to disagree with Gor-Rok & Kairos and Kislev over cathay ;
- skaven are one of the most annoying faction to deal with, always ambushing and invisible on the map it's a weird choice for beginners and also you're surrounded by enemies, bordeleau, markus, yuan bo, dark elves, skavens, vampire coast and kairos will also come for your ass at some point it's not beginner friendly at all when there is a multiple front wars and also the faction mechanic is sloppy and it's not a balanced army, very monster heavy, i rarely see anyone using cav or missile with lizardmen
- kairos start position is way too isolated, it will not teach a beginner how to secure its border and the roster relies on the DLCS too much.
And cathay is a much more beginner friendly faction, balanced army and good frontlines (idk why Zerkovich says it isn't, i've used jade warriors/halberdiers heavily even in the turn 100+), it is indeed an easy sit & artillery faction but it is the case only in the mid to late part of the campaign, early it touch and teach a bit of everything in early, bow / guns difference, line of sight importance, cavalry, flying cavalry, especially with the trade caravan battles, you have limited units to use in battle and you can add a ton of other faction units too, also while travelling you meet almost every faction possible and that's a good teaching experience without having any consequences on your campaign, you just lose a little bit of money and since cathay has such a good economy, it's almost free, it also teach about securing borders from chaos, the lightning strike importance against greenskin, allies / confederation, except the elves i don't see any faction better at teaching the game to newbies, it's probably even better than the elves.
I don't see how cathay is worse than kislev, considering that kislev you get invaded from 6 different sides while you are fighting almost alone, azazel north west, wulfrick and other chaos warrior from the west, archaon & daniel from the north, skaven which are directly above you, chaos dwarfs from the north East, Greenskins from the east with Azzag.
Katarin is hard as hell, you have to manage skaven, norscan, chaos, orcs and Wood elves all at once and your "friends" can get overwhelmed very fast, would not recommend for a first. Surprised not to see greenskins or beastmen here, the first playing with lots of variety with relatively strong roster and easy mechanics, the second one for the ambush easy win and another way to play.
Tbh special mention to alith anar who is by far the easiest elf to play, and dark elves who have well rounded roster with I admit a rather complicated campagne mechanic for new players