Did you know..? When Ikit was first introduced, you could build Doomspheres in every city of Athel Loren, nuking the entire forest off the map before the woodelves even knew what hit them!
@@Tunoi_Veil Sadly, they gave the Oak of Ages something around 80% discovery rate of undercities, so they'll always find the doomsphere before it has a chance to finish construction
Really want to try that out now. Also - more cheesy, but effective frontline is 2 - 4 Plague-priests with the Vermintide spell. These in my experience hold out much longer than Warpfire Throwers and Warp-Grinders (each has 5 - 7 summon units). Very cool video, keep up the good work!
@@agentnumberone I mean, they do cheat, but the AI still has an economy that can be affected, it's quite possible to somehow siphon them of any economy and then nuke it to hell? Wouldnt they need the funds to destroy it in the first place?
@@Vilosekable That's it! Much more flexible and skaven-y too, since you can cast the summons faster than some warp grinders could reposition to eat a charge AND you can use the summons as doomrocket, warp bomb or spell nexus and group enemies around them then have a big boom land or weapons teams focus fire on a blob. Which you don't want with warp grinders or Warpfire throwers unless you'd lose anyway.
Just a tip for compositions: The weapons teams, if you play your cards right, can be built early on, though not absolutely needed. But when you DO make a weapon team focused force, try to save 5-6 slots for heros. 2 plague priests and 4 chieftains with mounts, the 2 plague priests for the skavenslave spawning as a distraction (Cheaper then vermintide, always send them first to slow down the enemy forces as much as possible so your weapon teams can do all the work) and the chieftains if they somehow get close to your formation (they can solo with their mount quite effectively, enough for your units to finish off whatever got through). The warpgrinder and warp flame throwers are great but very niche in their use. It's good to have a couple at the start but as you get to mid-late game stage, it's just dead weight. As for under cities, it's best to still expand normally but using a single settlement to create one, and even sending others forward to create more in areas you plan to take, so you're always replenished. It makes expanding a lot easier and a lot faster when your army is fresh every single turn
amazing video man! its refreshing seeing someone put so much effort in their tutorial videos. I'm new to Warhammer and your videos helped me to get into the lore. have any idea for what faction you're gonna do next?
Honestly incredible video. Your editting style is perfect, it caters towards getting the information in such a easy manner. Keep it up dude, absolutely loved it!!!
Very good video. The only thing I do different is my mid-late game army composition. I usually have either 1 warlock engineer (for more ammo and range) and 2 plague priests. Plague is an insanely good lore of magic for the skaven. 2-3 plague priests and the additjonal summons are all you need as a frontline. Just use the clanrat summons to block the few units that get close until your ranged units atomize them. 5 ratling guns, 3 jezzails, 3 mortars, 3 plagueclaw catapults, 2 warp lightning cannons (can be replaced by doomwheel or flayer). Plagueclaw catapults are usefull for the whole game because the 2 artillery pieces have very different uses. Catapult obliterates infantry and can be used in sieges while the cannons are best against monsters or big cavalry units (similar to jezzails who are also good at snipping heroes and elite infantry) but are mediocre at best against most other things. The vehicles are fun but aside from stalling enemy units they don't really have a place in my armies since melee is avoided at all cost and more firepower benefits that style better. Why use a unit slot for a melee unit when you can add more firepower to prevent the whole need for melee units at all. Also your army seems kinda bad at sieges. Not that it isn't possible but you will take a lot more casualties than necessary to your weapons teams. 3 catapults and 3 mortars + spells are usually enough to weaken enemies enough from outside their range to break them with a few summons of clanrats which will soak up all the damage and leave all your units in top shape aside from the early tower kills. This comp only suffers damage if you don't deal with enemy ranged quickly or don't distract them with summons or simply get surrounded/flanked by reinforcements but honestly that applies to most armies and if you get circled you're in a bad position from the start.
Found your post on reddit. Skimmed the video. Quality content. You just earned a new sub ! P.s.: Really nice of you to add a bit of lore to these too :D
BiS ratmen armies is basically 4-5 plague priests summoning infinite rat walls while weapon teams tear through them. Also Ikit cheese is to sack tobarro until 80 food on turn 4 or 5. Settle Tobarro and raze Skaven blight. Then re-settle to make a tier 4 skaven blight on turn 5-6. Yeah the first 20 turns are a little slow, but you get to go ham on the world once those buildings are up. Also who micro manages under empires? They halt your army battles which is why we're playing total war to start with.
I prefer not to cheese, hence a guide not focused around exploits. But to each their own playstyle, as long as you're having fun. It takes less time and effort to manage under empires then it does to blob and build full settlements, should try it some time you might appreciate the different approach!
Would have wished for some tips regarding his quest battle, especially in mortal empires. I feel like I did it too early in my campaign with lackluster units and it thus becoming quite a struggle
Sadly the quests have never been updated since they were first implemented, so they've scaled poorly over time. They're thankfully not necessary to do right away, so my best advice is just wait until you have a better end-game army before taking them on
tbh, I have never had as much fun in wh as when I have played with ikit claw. Pure mega lmao when you use the first nuke - not to forget utterly melting ironbreakers with maxed out ratling guns.
the bigggest problem i have with the under empire cities is you invest alot of gold in them and then wham the ai raises the city next time its attacked
If I could give some advice, use less jezzails in armies, only 2 or 3, use at least 2 plague priests, since plague magic is insanely good, especially in sieges, plus you can literally summon rats, also Assassins aren't that good in battle, better off with aforementioned plague priests. Furthermore, warpfire throwers are more early-mid game units since they have very low range, and warp drills are just a meh unit even in mid game, don't bother upgrading warp drills or warpfire throwers too early. Upgrade your ratling gunners and jezzails first, then your poison wind mortars. Also, two plague catapults and/or one warp lightning cannon is more than enough artillery. Since you have unlimited ammo for the ratling gunners they should be your main focus. Just get like 2 or 3 plague priests, 6 ratling guns, 2 jezzails, 3 artillery pieces, 2 poison wind mortars (or the avalanche ror one) And a unit of doomflayers or even two. Chieftain is nice to have to especially on his bonebreaker mount For Ikit's skills, get everything yellow in his unique skill tree for sure (don't bother too much with his melee abilities), but it is detrimental, 100% NEEDED to get second wind serum, it literally heals like 700 hp everytime you cast with Ikit. Blue line, just get route marcher and ancient cunning maxed out, you don't need lightning strike because of Skaven ambush. For his red skill tree only focus on his missile units like the ratling guns, jezzails and plague catapults if you have enough points left. But more important is to finish his magic line so that you can get his unique arcane conduit, the green one at the end of the magic tree. Also put him on a doomflayer not doomwheel since the animation is better in fighting and its a smaller target. For early game keep sacking Tobaro until you have max food and nice levels up with Ikit. This way you can expand easily. Also, don't be scared of rebellions, they are free food after all which you 100% need, literally to live. Like Agent said, get Marigliano first and Sartosa, but then I wouldn't wait for the Empire to band together and get a order tide in with the Dawi. Try to divide the Empire asap and take it bit by bit. Don't overextend, but keep gnawing at a decent pace. Just my opinion so feel free to disagree, I like to play efficiently
I will say though, if you have a campaign where Naggarond is being a piece of shit and has taken over the donut (meaning the ordertide is half as deadly), feel free to take one Reikland whenever and at your own pace, without letting them expand TOO much. Most the units in the late game by that stage are very easy to take on, though it is a pain in the ass when he sends cav focus armies at you (I mean, all it requires is a bit more attention to the plagie priest micro and other things, and ensuring you're targeting high value units/close units/units without damage). I can say, currently as I take on Reikland in the late game, it's become a push over. Though to be fair, mors and eshin somehow grew and I managed to confederate them at a later stage, so that does tend to help with funding and fielding more forces.
Good tips, yes-yes. One exception: Putting regiments of reknown in your standing armies is a TRAP (and not a good one for the player). RoR are for emergencies as they are the only units you can instantly recruit to bolster an army/emergency lord that is about to face a disaster battle over an endturn.
Definitely agree, it's generally better to keep RoR as a backup and level up troops. With the one exception being the death globe mortars because they are insanely OP and can wipe half an army out on their own
I take the Tilean coast down to Sartosa and then everything else is undercities. In Warhammer 2 you needed 8 capital cities for win conditions but that's no longer the case in TWW3, so you could easily do it with just those spots (or _only_ use Skavenblight for an extra challenge)
@@agentnumberone I never played skaven before so i tried just taking everything like i do wirh everyone else, like with kemmler. I dont really know how to use under cities and where to place them or how.
@@cobrazax focus first on cities that connect to a lot of other places with mines that auto-expand the empire, then capital cities that make a lot of gold for the % based income building, then any other settlements to balance your food/gold upkeep. The rite-summoned warlock that makes the unique research building is good to use in locations that rarely get destroyed (massif orcal, galleons graveyard, sartosa, etc)
@@agentnumberone Should i send my Warlock far away from the start to set up the under empire? Or should i keep it with my army? I just took over estalia from the start with my initial army and didnt yet do anything beyond that. Not sure how to manage food. Only got their capital to lvl 3 using food and thats it. No food for anything really.
@@cobrazax You can send him away, but work out from Skavenblight, he has a ten turn cooldown between uses so use it as often as you can. Have your army raid and sack nearby factions to keep your food up until the under empire comes online
@@agentnumberone Thanks I havent gotten any yet so Im curious about the % chance you have at getting warp fuel been a long time since I played and last time I played I didnt really worry about it much so Im trying to be more efficient with my actions I guess good guide though overall
I slightly disagree with your campaign strategy. Your starting advice to train in Estalia but take over Tilea is good. I then take over Sartosa because it's a good source of income. After that, I work on gaining control of The Vaults, Black Mountains and the Eastern Border Princes. Karak Izor (The Vaults) is important to the Skaven because it has Copper Mountain, a special landmark that provides a slight reduction in the upkeep cost of weapons teams, a +3 recruit rank for all Skaven weapons teams and a +1 to global and local recruitment capacity. Black Mountains and the Eastern Border Princes are useful because both of those territories contain pastures, a great constant source of Food. This is a total of 12 regions but once developed they should provide 24 food per turn, and give you a very decent income as well. If you're still a bit hungry for land after that, a bit further north are Western Sylvania and Ostermark, both with pastures so feeding your hunger won't starve your population. And just a bit north of that is Hell Pit, where you might be able to ally (or confedeRAT) with Throt the Unclean. If it's battle you're hunting for, an expedition to the far south to the Southern Desert of Araby might be just what you need. It's a two region province that has those all important pastures, and is the home of Tiktaq'to. While it's no Lustria, this region has plenty of enemies to fight against, most notably the Tomb Kings. This can be an excellent area to gain some experience if your troops can handle the heat.
I mean you need to do the Ikit quest line anyway, just send a singular force to go conquer all of Lustria, or half of it, then just leave without ever doing anything there again (which is exactly what I did).
Did you know..? When Ikit was first introduced, you could build Doomspheres in every city of Athel Loren, nuking the entire forest off the map before the woodelves even knew what hit them!
you cant now?
@@Tunoi_Veil Sadly, they gave the Oak of Ages something around 80% discovery rate of undercities, so they'll always find the doomsphere before it has a chance to finish construction
Really want to try that out now. Also - more cheesy, but effective frontline is 2 - 4 Plague-priests with the Vermintide spell. These in my experience hold out much longer than Warpfire Throwers and Warp-Grinders (each has 5 - 7 summon units). Very cool video, keep up the good work!
@@agentnumberone I mean, they do cheat, but the AI still has an economy that can be affected, it's quite possible to somehow siphon them of any economy and then nuke it to hell? Wouldnt they need the funds to destroy it in the first place?
@@Vilosekable That's it! Much more flexible and skaven-y too, since you can cast the summons faster than some warp grinders could reposition to eat a charge AND you can use the summons as doomrocket, warp bomb or spell nexus and group enemies around them then have a big boom land or weapons teams focus fire on a blob.
Which you don't want with warp grinders or Warpfire throwers unless you'd lose anyway.
The fact that there isn't a mod that dub's Ikit Claw's maniacal laughter as a Doom Rocket hits is a travesty.
Be the change you want to see in this world!
Just a tip for compositions: The weapons teams, if you play your cards right, can be built early on, though not absolutely needed. But when you DO make a weapon team focused force, try to save 5-6 slots for heros. 2 plague priests and 4 chieftains with mounts, the 2 plague priests for the skavenslave spawning as a distraction (Cheaper then vermintide, always send them first to slow down the enemy forces as much as possible so your weapon teams can do all the work) and the chieftains if they somehow get close to your formation (they can solo with their mount quite effectively, enough for your units to finish off whatever got through).
The warpgrinder and warp flame throwers are great but very niche in their use. It's good to have a couple at the start but as you get to mid-late game stage, it's just dead weight.
As for under cities, it's best to still expand normally but using a single settlement to create one, and even sending others forward to create more in areas you plan to take, so you're always replenished. It makes expanding a lot easier and a lot faster when your army is fresh every single turn
amazing video man! its refreshing seeing someone put so much effort in their tutorial videos. I'm new to Warhammer and your videos helped me to get into the lore. have any idea for what faction you're gonna do next?
Thank you, I have a lot of fun making them! Very likely we'll be looking at Dark Elves next, but not sure which LL yet
Honestly incredible video. Your editting style is perfect, it caters towards getting the information in such a easy manner. Keep it up dude, absolutely loved it!!!
Thanks so much dude, love the love
Very good video. The only thing I do different is my mid-late game army composition. I usually have either 1 warlock engineer (for more ammo and range) and 2 plague priests. Plague is an insanely good lore of magic for the skaven. 2-3 plague priests and the additjonal summons are all you need as a frontline. Just use the clanrat summons to block the few units that get close until your ranged units atomize them. 5 ratling guns, 3 jezzails, 3 mortars, 3 plagueclaw catapults, 2 warp lightning cannons (can be replaced by doomwheel or flayer). Plagueclaw catapults are usefull for the whole game because the 2 artillery pieces have very different uses. Catapult obliterates infantry and can be used in sieges while the cannons are best against monsters or big cavalry units (similar to jezzails who are also good at snipping heroes and elite infantry) but are mediocre at best against most other things. The vehicles are fun but aside from stalling enemy units they don't really have a place in my armies since melee is avoided at all cost and more firepower benefits that style better. Why use a unit slot for a melee unit when you can add more firepower to prevent the whole need for melee units at all. Also your army seems kinda bad at sieges. Not that it isn't possible but you will take a lot more casualties than necessary to your weapons teams. 3 catapults and 3 mortars + spells are usually enough to weaken enemies enough from outside their range to break them with a few summons of clanrats which will soak up all the damage and leave all your units in top shape aside from the early tower kills. This comp only suffers damage if you don't deal with enemy ranged quickly or don't distract them with summons or simply get surrounded/flanked by reinforcements but honestly that applies to most armies and if you get circled you're in a bad position from the start.
I've been watching Warhammer 2 videos a while and this is one of the most useful and concise guides on Ikit. Keep it up #1
Thanks so much! I'm still very proud of this guide, really loved making it
Hey glad this randomly showed up in my recommendations this is some amazing work
I'm glad it showed up there as well!
Found your post on reddit.
Skimmed the video.
Quality content.
You just earned a new sub !
P.s.: Really nice of you to add a bit of lore to these too :D
Yay I'm glad! I really enjoy learning the lore, so getting to share a slice is super fun
Man this video is gold, stinking, shiny gold. I just picked up the dlc with Ikit Claw and I'm struggling bad, might give your strategy a go.
Thanks, I think? The undercity strat is a strange one, but its very satisfying once it ramps up and it makes you feel like a proper skaven horde
Dude just stumbled upon your channel. Your guides are fantastic! Do more please!
Thanks! New series is coming later this week, and more guides will be following!
Great guide! Love the format, covers everything, while not being too detailed and its funny at the same time.
Thanks that's absolutely the goal, glad you liked it!
Wow this Faction seems OP. I never played Skaven, gonna try these guys out.
They are notoriously the dev's fan favourite faction, very fun and powerful
Absolutely fantastic video man. So damn helpful.
Happy to help!
I'm glad UA-cam has the ability to control video speed, because this video is much easier to follow at .8 and .9 speed.
Hahaha love it, it's hard to cram in everything in such a short time!
concise and good
kind and nice
Instant sub. Awesome content!!!!!
Thanks so much!
Step 1: build doom-rocket
Step 2: Victory
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: PROFIT!
BiS ratmen armies is basically 4-5 plague priests summoning infinite rat walls while weapon teams tear through them.
Also Ikit cheese is to sack tobarro until 80 food on turn 4 or 5. Settle Tobarro and raze Skaven blight. Then re-settle to make a tier 4 skaven blight on turn 5-6.
Yeah the first 20 turns are a little slow, but you get to go ham on the world once those buildings are up.
Also who micro manages under empires? They halt your army battles which is why we're playing total war to start with.
I prefer not to cheese, hence a guide not focused around exploits. But to each their own playstyle, as long as you're having fun.
It takes less time and effort to manage under empires then it does to blob and build full settlements, should try it some time you might appreciate the different approach!
i have no idea how your content is, im not even at 0:35 BUT have a like and sub for that intro! :)
Would have wished for some tips regarding his quest battle, especially in mortal empires. I feel like I did it too early in my campaign with lackluster units and it thus becoming quite a struggle
Sadly the quests have never been updated since they were first implemented, so they've scaled poorly over time. They're thankfully not necessary to do right away, so my best advice is just wait until you have a better end-game army before taking them on
tbh, I have never had as much fun in wh as when I have played with ikit claw. Pure mega lmao when you use the first nuke - not to forget utterly melting ironbreakers with maxed out ratling guns.
Easily one of the more enjoyable campaigns in the game, he's a big fan favourite!
Now I have the it’s to play a shaven campaign thanks!!
Good luck! They're very fun!
the bigggest problem i have with the under empire cities is you invest alot of gold in them and then wham the ai raises the city next time its attacked
The same can be said of a regular city as well! There's definitely some gamble here, but the costs are generally low considering the risk
If I could give some advice, use less jezzails in armies, only 2 or 3, use at least 2 plague priests, since plague magic is insanely good, especially in sieges, plus you can literally summon rats, also Assassins aren't that good in battle, better off with aforementioned plague priests. Furthermore, warpfire throwers are more early-mid game units since they have very low range, and warp drills are just a meh unit even in mid game, don't bother upgrading warp drills or warpfire throwers too early. Upgrade your ratling gunners and jezzails first, then your poison wind mortars. Also, two plague catapults and/or one warp lightning cannon is more than enough artillery. Since you have unlimited ammo for the ratling gunners they should be your main focus. Just get like 2 or 3 plague priests, 6 ratling guns, 2 jezzails, 3 artillery pieces, 2 poison wind mortars (or the avalanche ror one) And a unit of doomflayers or even two. Chieftain is nice to have to especially on his bonebreaker mount
For Ikit's skills, get everything yellow in his unique skill tree for sure (don't bother too much with his melee abilities), but it is detrimental, 100% NEEDED to get second wind serum, it literally heals like 700 hp everytime you cast with Ikit. Blue line, just get route marcher and ancient cunning maxed out, you don't need lightning strike because of Skaven ambush. For his red skill tree only focus on his missile units like the ratling guns, jezzails and plague catapults if you have enough points left. But more important is to finish his magic line so that you can get his unique arcane conduit, the green one at the end of the magic tree. Also put him on a doomflayer not doomwheel since the animation is better in fighting and its a smaller target.
For early game keep sacking Tobaro until you have max food and nice levels up with Ikit. This way you can expand easily. Also, don't be scared of rebellions, they are free food after all which you 100% need, literally to live. Like Agent said, get Marigliano first and Sartosa, but then I wouldn't wait for the Empire to band together and get a order tide in with the Dawi. Try to divide the Empire asap and take it bit by bit. Don't overextend, but keep gnawing at a decent pace.
Just my opinion so feel free to disagree, I like to play efficiently
I will say though, if you have a campaign where Naggarond is being a piece of shit and has taken over the donut (meaning the ordertide is half as deadly), feel free to take one Reikland whenever and at your own pace, without letting them expand TOO much.
Most the units in the late game by that stage are very easy to take on, though it is a pain in the ass when he sends cav focus armies at you (I mean, all it requires is a bit more attention to the plagie priest micro and other things, and ensuring you're targeting high value units/close units/units without damage). I can say, currently as I take on Reikland in the late game, it's become a push over. Though to be fair, mors and eshin somehow grew and I managed to confederate them at a later stage, so that does tend to help with funding and fielding more forces.
Good tips, yes-yes.
One exception: Putting regiments of reknown in your standing armies is a TRAP (and not a good one for the player). RoR are for emergencies as they are the only units you can instantly recruit to bolster an army/emergency lord that is about to face a disaster battle over an endturn.
Definitely agree, it's generally better to keep RoR as a backup and level up troops. With the one exception being the death globe mortars because they are insanely OP and can wipe half an army out on their own
Gained another sub, fantastic quality content, was a nice surprise!
Thanks, glad to surprise!
Hide under the city's cover and live your rat dreams in secret? That's a Stratatouille
Skaven pulling the puppet strings of all the lesser man-things!
He stopped the skeletons but nuking them sky high.. He is an unsong hero :D
Watching nuke bomb landing right in a midlle of a huge army makes me laugh in skaven
never gets old
Awesome vid
Thank ya!
love the video
Thanks!
so which cities to take and which to just expand below??
I take the Tilean coast down to Sartosa and then everything else is undercities. In Warhammer 2 you needed 8 capital cities for win conditions but that's no longer the case in TWW3, so you could easily do it with just those spots (or _only_ use Skavenblight for an extra challenge)
@@agentnumberone
I never played skaven before so i tried just taking everything like i do wirh everyone else, like with kemmler. I dont really know how to use under cities and where to place them or how.
@@cobrazax focus first on cities that connect to a lot of other places with mines that auto-expand the empire, then capital cities that make a lot of gold for the % based income building, then any other settlements to balance your food/gold upkeep. The rite-summoned warlock that makes the unique research building is good to use in locations that rarely get destroyed (massif orcal, galleons graveyard, sartosa, etc)
@@agentnumberone
Should i send my Warlock far away from the start to set up the under empire? Or should i keep it with my army?
I just took over estalia from the start with my initial army and didnt yet do anything beyond that.
Not sure how to manage food.
Only got their capital to lvl 3 using food and thats it. No food for anything really.
@@cobrazax You can send him away, but work out from Skavenblight, he has a ten turn cooldown between uses so use it as often as you can. Have your army raid and sack nearby factions to keep your food up until the under empire comes online
Is this video still good for Warhammer 3
Yup Skaven haven't really had any major updates, ogres near his start is the only thing different
Just want to let anyone stumbling upon this in 2024 know: Ikit is indeed in AoS now.
You are the best
No you're breathtaking!
how to get a lot of warp-fuel? I am already in late game but only got a few.
Lots of battles, also having some heroes run around and farm actions (like assassinate or assault army) will get you some extra
What heroe actions get warp fuel??
Assassinate, assault army, block army, steal tech, etc; basically any action that targets an enemy army/hero/settlement
@@agentnumberone Thanks I havent gotten any yet so Im curious about the % chance you have at getting warp fuel been a long time since I played and last time I played I didnt really worry about it much so Im trying to be more efficient with my actions I guess good guide though overall
I slightly disagree with your campaign strategy. Your starting advice to train in Estalia but take over Tilea is good. I then take over Sartosa because it's a good source of income. After that, I work on gaining control of The Vaults, Black Mountains and the Eastern Border Princes. Karak Izor (The Vaults) is important to the Skaven because it has Copper Mountain, a special landmark that provides a slight reduction in the upkeep cost of weapons teams, a +3 recruit rank for all Skaven weapons teams and a +1 to global and local recruitment capacity. Black Mountains and the Eastern Border Princes are useful because both of those territories contain pastures, a great constant source of Food. This is a total of 12 regions but once developed they should provide 24 food per turn, and give you a very decent income as well.
If you're still a bit hungry for land after that, a bit further north are Western Sylvania and Ostermark, both with pastures so feeding your hunger won't starve your population. And just a bit north of that is Hell Pit, where you might be able to ally (or confedeRAT) with Throt the Unclean. If it's battle you're hunting for, an expedition to the far south to the Southern Desert of Araby might be just what you need. It's a two region province that has those all important pastures, and is the home of Tiktaq'to. While it's no Lustria, this region has plenty of enemies to fight against, most notably the Tomb Kings. This can be an excellent area to gain some experience if your troops can handle the heat.
I mean you need to do the Ikit quest line anyway, just send a singular force to go conquer all of Lustria, or half of it, then just leave without ever doing anything there again (which is exactly what I did).