Using heroes and its consequences TW: Warhammer Guide

As you can guess, having heroes won't give you any advantage over the enemy - you have to use them appropriately. This chapter will inform you how to perform certain hero actions, and what can be the consequences for doing it.

• Using heroes
• Consequences of using heroes
• Deploying a hero in a province

Using heroes

A screen showing the chances of success.

First things first, you must remember about one thing - limitations of hero actions depending on whether he is travelling alone, or inside of a Lord's army. When a hero is traveling inside of an army, you won't be able to use his services. You can still order a hero located in an army to perform, for instance, an assassination, but he will leave the army to do so and won't be able to come back during the same turn, as heroes use all their move when performing actions. On the other hand, a hero that is travelling alone won't be able to make use of his army-influencing abilities - you must take things such as those into consideration.

Ordering a hero to perform an action is identical to a normal order issued on the world map, like attacking a settlement. You just have to select a hero and designate a target by right clicking with the mouse. Depending on the type of the hero, as well as the abilities you've unlocked for him, different actions might be presented.

After clicking on the target a screen showing available actions and their chances of success will appear. A series of information will be displayed here, such as:

• Positive outcome - the chances for a successful action, such as assassinating a hero / lord, damaging a building, or inflicting damage on a garrisoned army.
• Negative outcome, hero failure - one of the two negative results. In this case the hero won't be able to carry out his order, but nothing else will happen.
• Negative outcome, hero wounded - aside from failing to carry out his order, the hero will also be wounded. You won't be able to use his services for a few turns, after which the hero will reappear at the capital city of the province.

The chances of success are influenced by various factors, such as the level of the hero, items that he is carrying, some hero abilities and random world effects. If the chances of carrying the action will be too low, the action won't be available to perform (the button will be greyed out).

To be able to order you hero to perform a specific action, you will need two things - enough movement left for the hero so that he can reach his target, as well as sufficient gold in the treasury. Each action costs a specific amount of gold and without it you won't be able to perform it. The amount of gold required can be lowered with hero / Lord abilities, research, buildings, as well as during special world events. You should note that with a large amount of heroes under your command you can waste a lot of gold without achieving anything.

Consequences of using heroes

There are two consequences (aside from the effects the actions offer) of hero actions - gaining experience points and influence on the diplomatic relations with the faction you performed the action on. Each action, whether successful or a failure (aside from situations in which the hero gets wounded) will give your hero a specific amount of experience - in most cases will give a full level. This allows heroes to advance to higher levels, which increases their effectiveness and gives them access to more powerful abilities.

You should remember that actions performed on another faction will have negative effects on your relations. Killing heroes / Lords and attacking settlements will give a penalty to diplomacy with that faction - those penalties aren't big, but they can quickly accumulate to huge values. In extreme situations it can lead the other faction to break an alliance with you, stop trading, or even declare war on your faction. You should always consider whether it's worth to use it on a specific faction.

Remember about one thing - a hero (in contrast to a Lord) can move freely around other provinces, without the risk of you getting a penalty because of trespassing. Until you perform an action against enemy hero / Lord or settlement, it will have no impact on diplomatic relations of your factions.

Deploying a hero in a province

Each hero can be deployed in a province.

Another, somewhat hidden function of every hero is the ability to deploy him in a province. It offers various effects depending on the type of the hero, as well as whether the province is yours, or belongs to another faction. Each hero type has a predetermined effect that will be caused upon his deployment. For instance, Empire Captain will increase the public order by 5 points if it's a province controlled by the player - if it's controlled by other faction, he will decrease it by -5 points. Other heroes can influence the amount of Winds of Magic points available to heroes, modify construction and recruitment costs, or even influence corruption.

To deploy a hero you must select one that is travelling alone (not inside of an army) and then click on the "sword and eye" icon visible on the bottom of the screen. There you can check what deploying him will do (by hovering over the icon). The type of influence will always be the same - the only difference will be the value of it. If deploying a hero in your province increases public order by 5, it will decrease it by -5 in an enemy province. If deploying one in your province gives +10 points to Winds of Magic, deploying him in an enemy province will give -10 to enemy Lords.

There's a number of things associated with hero deployment, such as:

• After deployment the hero loses all of his movement.
• In order for the deployment to be active, the hero must remain stationary. If you deploy a hero, end the turn and during the next one order the hero to move, the effect offered by the deployment will be lost. You can leave a hero stationary for multiple turns to keep the effect active.
• You can deploy multiple different heroes in a single province, so that their effects will stack, but you can't deploy two identical heroes in a single province. For instance, you can deploy a hero that gives +5 public order and another one with +20 growth, but you can't deploy two heroes that give +5 public order - the second one will cancel the first one.
• Heroes can neutralize effects caused by enemy heroes. If, for instance, a an enemy deploys a hero that increases corruption in your province, you can deploy your own one that will decrease it, thus neutralizing the effect. It's useful when killing the enemy hero is impossible.
• Deploying heroes (in contrast to normal actions of Lords and Heroes) in a province that is controlled by another faction has no impact on your diplomatic relations.