About Dark Elves - advice, tips and hints | Factions Total War: Warhammer II Guide
Last update: 22 November 2017
Dark Elves are the rebellious kin of the High Elves. They inhabit snowy territories of Naggaroth, where their leader - Malekith, hid after a failed coup d'état on Ulthuan.
About Dark Elves
Both, armies of Dark and High Elves, are highly disciplined. However, unlike their cousins, Dark Elves use crossbows in combat, in the place of bows. As a result of that, their range is shorter. In their army, there are more lightweight units, which rely predominantly on their combat skills - such as Witch Elves or Shades. Of course, they also have heavier units, such as Black Guards of Naggarond. Additionally, after killing enough enemies in the battlefield, Dark Elves receive a temporary ability of Murderous Prowess - which increases their effectiveness in battle. Dark Elven armies also comprise monsters such as Black Dragons and Hydras.
This race also has access to powerful magic. Apart from sorceresses, proficient in one of four domains (Shadow, Fire, and Darkness), there also are two Legendary lords that wield powerful spells. Mainly, these are offensive spells, although the Fire Sorceress also has some defensive ones.
Dark Elven Lords have their specific leadership levels. A lord's low leadership may lead to rebellion and, as a result, may lose the army he commands, as it will become easy to defeat. Loyalty of lords can be boosted with the hero included in the army, and also by enlisting new units and winning battles.
Dark Elves can use slaves captured in battle to increase effectiveness of their economy. Slaves that you can capture in any battle are sent back into the province, which translates into higher income from that province. However, too high a number of slaves can lead to drop in social order. The number of slave transports to every province can be controlled in the province panel, or in general slaves panel. An additional factor that results from capturing slaves is impossibility to turn off levying taxes in provinces of Dark Elves.
Dark Elves have access to Black Arks that are floating cities. To recruit them, you have to perform the Ritual, and functioning of Arks is similar to that of the Horde in previous installments. Each Ark has an army panel where you recruit units and building panel, where you order specific structures to be erected. Although erecting each structure takes up a single turn, building them in their basic versions takes up population surplus. Additionally, Black Arks can reinforce nearby (the broken line circle around Arks) armies fighting on main land, using special abilities.
This race is, basically, hostile to anyone, including their kin. Of course, the main enemy of Dark Elves are High Elves inhabiting Ulthuan, but this does not prevent them from fighting among each other. Therefore, while playing as this race, abandon all hope of getting rich thanks to trade or of entering alliances with other factions.
Available leaders
Just like in the case of any race available in the basic version of the game, Dark Elves have two Legendary Lords. Your selection of the Legendary Lord determines bonuses that your faction receives, as well as starting units, or abilities of the Legendary Lord himself. Additionally, their starting positions are different, which makes for different difficulty levels at the beginning of the game. You gain access to the second Legendary Lord during the campaign, by entering a confederacy with him.
Malekith (Naggarond faction) - he is both a powerful mage and a strong warrior. His magical armor provides him with high resistance and, thanks to spells, he can easily decimate enemy armies. Additionally, you can unlock Seraphon for him - Black Dragon that Malekith mounts for the battle. Malekith starts his campaign in the Northern part of Naggaroth and it is quite laid back. First, he has to eliminate Skavens, which should not be too problematic, after which his task it to unite factions of Elves. During the campaign, as Malekith, you should realize that some of his experience will be passed over to his Lords, and the one with experience higher than Malekith's may lose leadership and rebel, as a result. In exchange for that, his cost to upkeep basic swordsmen, spearmen and crossbowmen, as well as of elite infantry of Black Guards of Naggarond units is lower by 50%. Additionally, his relations with the faction of the other Legendary Lord of Dark Elves are higher, plus a bonus to leadership of newly enlisted lords. His starting units are Black Guard of Naggarond and Reaper Bolt Thrower. Black Guard of Naggarond are heavy infantry that is probably the most elite unit of this race. Ballista, on the other hand will be useful for decimating enemy lines, before they reach you.
Morathi (Cult of Pleasure) - she is a powerful witch that wields a wide array of powerful spells and abilities. However, in combat, she cannot do much, due to her weak armor. This gets better if her Sulephet is unlocked - a dark steed. She starts the campaign in the center of Naggaroth and is surrounded by hostile factions of Dark Elves. Additionally, around, there also is a colony of High Elves, so you will also have to fight against them at the beginning of the game. During the campaign, Morathi has lower costs of hero actions by a half, and also, with each turn, Lords can gain additional Leadership. apart from that, she receives a bonus to diplomatic relations with other factions of Dark Elves, but this is of little effect (especially at the very hard difficulty). An additional property of this faction is warping of Chaos. Unlike the majority of other factions, in the case of this one, its high level is desired, and its low levels lead to social disorder. Starting units of this faction are War Hydra and Harpies. Hydra is a powerful, fire belching monster that can give you the upper hand in battle. Harpies are much weaker units and they can be mainly useful for catching ranged units, for infantry to catch up with them.