General information | Battles TW: Warhammer Guide
Battles are bread and butter of the Total War: Warhammer. You can make use of the diplomacy options and pressure you are able to force with it on other factions, but sooner or later you will be forced into a battle. You should know how to prepare for it properly.
Before the battle
A thing that you should always remember before venturing into combat is to use an appropriate army to do so. There's no point in attacking a full, 20-unit army located inside of a city with a 16-unit garrison, when your army consists of a Lord and only a few units. The result of such a battle can only be one - your troops will run away from the battlefield because of the gigantic advantage in numbers that the enemy has.
You won't be able to see the full composition of the enemy army before attacking him (or when you are attacked), but you can see the amount of units that he takes into combat at all times. This can be done by clicking on the Lord commanding the army, as well as looking at the vertical bar located right next to the banner of the army (the more filled it is, the more army the Lord has). However, you shouldn't take the numbers too seriously - the strength of each unit, their levels, types, as well as the terrain have a huge impact on the outcome of the battle as well.
You should also pay attention to the units that the enemy has at his disposal. If the enemy Lord has 3 artillery units with a huge firing range and you don't have a single one, you should think twice before attacking such a foe. The enemy will be able to keep you at a distance and before your troops reach the enemy army you might lose even 1/3 of your original numbers.
The same goes when the roles are reversed. If you have artillery units (and the enemy doesn't), you will be able to easily defeat an enemy army even when they have an advantage in numbers. You just have to set your artillery units in such a way that they are able to fire from the very beginning and wait with the rest of your troops for the enemy to close in on your position.
Finally, remember about a golden rule - always use the quick save option before each battle. The button used for that can be found on the pre-battle screen.
Starting position
Each encounter, be it between two armies, or during sieging of one of the cities begins with the "starting position" phase. During this the time is stopped and all the sides of the conflict can set up their units inside of the "starting position" zone, the zone marked by yellow lines. You should use this moment, as setting your units improperly can have disastrous effects and can cost you the entire battle.
First things first, look around the map and check if there are places that can give you an advantage over your enemies, or ones that the enemy can use against you. You should pay attention to places such as:
- High elevation. If there places of high elevation in the area of your starting position, use them and set your missile units on top of them. This will give them a height advantage which will increase their range and will allow them to shoot above your melee units more easily, preventing them from being obstructed. Units fighting in melee range will also benefit from such a ground - it's easier to fight downhill than to do so uphill. Remember that the enemy can do the same and use an elevated ground to his advantage.
- Swamps and shallow water. Units (aside from giant ones) moving through such ground receive serious penalty to their movement speed, as well as their overall effectiveness in combat. You should use such terrains to your advantage - set your melee units right next to them and your missile units behind them. Thanks to that, your missile units will be able to shoot at the enemies that have to crawl through a swamp, and the melee units will engage the foes that have negative modifiers to melee combat.
- Forests. Those won't give you any bonuses to defense, and they will decrease the movement speed of larger units and cavalry. However, those offer something even more powerful - the possibility to hide your units in the thick vegetation. Most of the units in the game (aside from the large and flying ones) are able to hide in the forests, making them invisible to the enemy unless they fire their weapons or move fast through the forest. Forests are ideal to prepare ambushes for the enemies - long strips of trees can even allow you to flank the unsuspecting foes.
- Terrain obstacles. If there's a huge obstacle between your missile units and the enemy forces, your units won't be able to shoot. The same applies to artillery units. You should avoid those places and keep your units as far from them as possible.
You should also pay attention to units with the Vanguard Deployment attribute. This attribute gives you the ability to set those units a little farther than with a normal unit. You should make use of this ability to set those units in places that might give you an additional advantage - like forests, which then can be used to ambush enemies.