Total War: WARHAMMER II

Total War: WARHAMMER II

Of Men and Monsters [Updated For Silence and Fury]
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
Tanit  [developer] 20 Jun, 2018 @ 6:12am
Tactica
Sure I have these new units, you say, but what are they good for? What are their strengths and weaknesses? I will try to answer this below.

Units:

Beastmen

Chaos Trolls: Trolls for Beastmen, nice and simple.

Chaos Ogres: These guys have a shield to represent Ogre Gut Plates from lore and have a really good charge bonus making them hard hitters. They will break easier than minotaurs, however, since they lack 'Bloodgreed'.

Bovigor Herd: A Gor herd with great weapons, giving you access to mid-tier ap damage.

Garthors: Dragon ogres with the name from Beastmen lore in the 6th edition army book.

Ghorgon: The Ghorgon is an infantry eating machine. With regeneration, Bloodgreed faster speed than a giant and a fast attack, they will carve infantry apart and stick around in the grind a long time. Their individual attacks are not as high as some monsters though, so they won't be as likely to win monster duels.

Gribbleback: Statistically this unit is basically just a mammoth for the Beastmen with a handful of changes.

Mutants: Another cheap, expendable fodder unit for Beastmen in the early game. What sets them apart from Ungors is having a higher number of models.

Redmaw: With one of the highest leadership values of any beastman unit and a decent amount of health, but a slow attack speed, Redmaw is best used for heroe/Lord support, especially with the addition of Guardian and Helping Hand. He does very well backing up a character in a duel, or acting as a champion for a charge of chaos hounds. In desperate cases he makes a decent tar-pit unit, holding up the enemy with his high leadership while a more valuable unit gets away. Make sure to give a treat to the most loyal doggy the beastmen ever had.

Shartak: A Dragon Ogre Shaggoth for the Beastmen using the name from their 6th edition Army Book lore.

Tuskgor Chariot: [Donated by Xenos, thanks!] A cheaper, earlier available and more numerous version of the Razorgor chariot. There is little else to say about the matter. They are a lot of fun I found, and hearken back to the days of 5th and 6th edition, but they don't do anything different from the razorgors in terms of strategy.


Bretonnia

Chasseur de la Mort: Very similar in stats to Mounted Yeomen, these guys are more focused on survivability. So they won't hit as hard, if that's how you would describe the Yeoman's attack, but will last a little longer in a protracted melee.

Chevaliers d'Honneur: These guys are the best of the best, basically even better Grail Knights, but only available for the main Bretonnian faction.

Chevaliers de Notre Dame de Bataille: Of a similar tier to Questing Knights, these guys forsake ap damage for shields and defensive stats to hang in a fight longer. Only available to Repanse's faction.

Field Trebuchet (Pox Carcass): A trebuchet that does poison damage.

Great Stag: A support 'monster' for Bretonnia. The Stage buffs nearby allies when in wooded terrain, allowing your knights to fight in the woods better. In turns of combat stats it is very similar to a manticore that can't fly.

Herrimaults: An elite archer unit with vanguard and stalk who has a bonus against cavalry from opposing all those haughty lords.

L'Ordonnance: This provides the main Bretonnian faction with access to a single unit of cannons, but has the negative of reducing the leadership of your whole army, to represent how insulted many are by your abandoning of the code of chivalry.

Mangonels: A siege engine with an anti-infantry bonus, firing multiple projectiles.

Mounted Squires: A more elite version of the Mounted Yeoman archers.

Noblesse D'Epee: The Nobility of the Sword are knights errant with worse mounts and armour, giving you access to a unit that does not eat into your peasant economy one tier earlier at the cost of worse equipment.

Scorpions: You can choose to use this bolt thrower like any other, but will suffer a leadership beduff to your whole army, to represent how insulted many are by your abandoning of the code of chivalry.

Sons of Bretonnia: Slightly worse in terms of stats than Grail Knights, the real power of this unit is its access to magic spells and bound abilities to wreak havoc.

Spirits of the Fey: An exceptionally elite ethereal cavalry unit with magic damage and a mortis engine effect. They will anchor your line really well and if facing them, try to get rid of them early to avoid suffering from their area effect damage.


Druchii - Core

Aeskhaine: A light discount version of Witch Elves, not available to the Cult of Pleasure.

Avatar of Khaela Mensha Khaine: A mighty unbreakable armoured giant with Heroic Killing Blow and the Gaze of Khaine making this both a great support unit to hold a line together and a great character hunter.

Blood Sisters: A unit of monstrous infantry for he Dark Elves is different enough, but these guys also have Guardian to help protect characters and apply a slow to units they attack with the Scath Touch.

City Guard: In a similar vein to the Lothern Sea Guard, these guys are crossbowmen with shields and spears, making them a little tankier in melee than your average Darkshards.

Doomdrakes: While not quite as good at melee as other Cold One units, these guys bring crossbows to the battle, increasing their utility, though remember when skirmishing with them that they are not as fast as horse mounted skirmishers.

Doomsteeds: A more elite shielded skirmisher cav than Darkriders that causes fear.

Helldrake: More massive and tanky than a Hydra, but with no regeneration, this monster can dish out a lot of damage.

Human Slaves: A cheap expendable infantry unit to screen and tar pit the enemy. They do have a one use bound ability that makes them temporarily better in combat, but don't expect these guys to win battles on their own.

Magma Dragon: With fiery breath instead of poison breath, this is a more traditional dragon, but he brings regeneration to the battle. He is very difficult to get a hold of though, requiring the exotic animal resource building.

Manticore Lords: Similar in stats and usage to Hippogriff knights, these guys uniquely add the ability to drop 'rocks' in the same way as terradon riders.

Nightmare Dragon: Deserving of its massive cost, this gigantic magical dragon can cast spells from the lore of Death.

Rephallim: With the best hiding stats of any unit in the game, you won't see these guys until you are almost right on top of them. Combined with high flying speed and being ethereal these guys are very deadly for wrecking back lines. Beware though, due to animation limitations, these guys cannot fight while in the air.

Royal War Hydra: The Royal Hydra unleashes an acidic breath and damages enemies with its acidic blood when in close combat. Due to the horrible experiences it has undergone however, this Hydra will become slower when its leadership is lowered.

Scourgerunner Chariot (Ravager Harpoon): As a nod to the weapon stats from the 8th edition Army Book, this chariot is a little more like a bolt thrower with higher range and a slowing effect from the chains the beastmasters attach to their bolts.

Spellthirster Hydra: Slightly weaker than a regular Hydra, where this monster shines is her ability to grant magic resistance to nearby allies.

Winterborn: The stats are the same as the Sisters of the Thorn for Wood Elves, but access to their spells can be very useful even if you can get only one and they are only available for Malekith's faction.


Druchii – Cult of Pleasure

Aspiring Champions of Shaarnor: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.

Devoted of Slaanesh: An even more lightly armoured version of Witch Elves, but instead of spreading the madness of Khaine, they lower the accuracy and attack skill of nearby enemies with their Soporific Musk. They are also immune to psychology with the Mark of Slaanesh.

Hung Horsemasters: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version.

Hung Horsemen: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version.

Hung Horsemen (Throwing Axes): Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version.

Hung Marauders: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version.

Hung Marauders (Great Weapons): Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version.

Knights of Shaarnor: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.

Knights of Shaarnor (Lance): Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.

Sorceress of Slaanesh: Statistically the same as the standard sorceress, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology. She also has an entirely new lore of magic, the Lore of Slaanesh, with 6 new spells and a new lore attribute.

Warriors of Shaarnor: Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.

Warriors of Shaarnor (Great Weapons): Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.

Warriors of Shaarnor (Halberds): Statistically the same as the Warriors of Chaos version, but with the Mark of Slaanesh they are immune to psychology.


Skaven – Core

Albino Stormvermin: This is a shielded version of the RoR. Although they have a limited quantity, at least you can get more than 1 now.

Cultists of the Poison Claw: A small unit of humans, even equipped with crossbows, wouldn't seem that useful, but these guys have a bunch of abilities, being practitioners of the dark arts. They cast Raise Dead and Apocalyptic Vision and whenever they cast they activate the constant buff, The Curse of Undeath. Easily available in custom battles, but require owning Empire territory to recruit in campaign.

Cultists of the Yellow Fang: A small unit of humans, even equipped with warplock pistols, wouldn't seem that useful, but these guys have a bunch of abilities, being practitioners of the dark arts. They cast Skitterleap and Apocalyptic Vision and whenever they cast they activate the constant buff, Smoke and Mirrors. Easily available in custom battles, but require owning Empire territory to recruit in campaign.

Rat Swarm: The cutest tar pit unit of them all, unleash the rats!


Skaven – Clan Eshin

Assassin Adepts: Halfway between Black Skaven and the Eshin triad, the assassin Adepts are a 60 man (or Rat) unit that hits decently hard, but is most notable for having a blowpipe missile weapon. It does some decent poison missile damage and has more ammo than the pistols or throwing stars of other units, while still firing in 360, which slings can't do.

Black Skaven: Slightly tougher, though less numerous, Death Runners. At 60 men, they are one of the smallest Skaven units you can get, but well worth it. They vanguard deploy, stalk, carry smoke bombs and, oh yes, fire warplock pistols that do magical armour piercing damage. Hit either ethereal units or armoured units from unexpected angles and watch hit points drop. Then charge into melee and hit a little harder than most Skaven skirmishing units, especially with the brand new 'Black Hunger' ability.

Eshin Master Triad: The terror of the battlefield, masters of stealth and slayers of main characters. The triad are Lord hunters. When using them, try to aim them directly at enemy characters and watch them vanish. When playing against them, shoot them as fast as possible and try to keep your Lords and heroes away. Watch out though, with smoke bombs, stalk and the lowest hiding scalar of any unit out there, they may just disappear on you.

Shadow Ogres: These are rat ogres that have vanguard deployment, as if rat ogres were not scary enough as it was.

Verminkin: The clanrats of Clan Eshin, these guys are slightly worse at everything than Night Runners, and only have throwing stars. Their main advantage is being a numerous vanguard unit. At 200 strong, it is one of the largest vanguard units available. Use them to distract and tie up enemy units while more important Skaven hit the enemy where it really counts.

Verminlord Deceiver: This Verminlord is not only an unbreakable deadly killing machine, but also has assassin abilities, a deadly throwing star, access to both the Lore of Ruin and the Lore of Stealth, and can vanguard deploy.

Warpguard: With a 50% magic immunity, this unit is good at tanking spell damage, or going up against units that have magical attacks. They are also immune to chaos attrition, and so make a good addition when travelling north. The trade-off is a slightly lower statline than regular Stormvermin, but in the right circumstances this unit really shines. It is a bit of an oddity, being a strong melee unit recruited from the top of the assassin/skirmish building tree, but that can be an asset to a skirmisher heavy army playstyle.


Skaven – Clan Moulder

Aberrations: These are Chaos Spawn for the Skaven, but only recruitable at Hell Pit itself.

Armoured Rat Ogres: Rat ogres with heavy armour, no other stats were changed.

Augmented Rat Ogres: Rat ogres with an armour save, though weaker than the armoured version, and a short ranged, low-ammo warpfire thrower. They get to get in some shooting against enemy infantry blocks before they do what rat ogres normally do.

Beastmasters with Chaos Warhounds: For the first time since third edition, the Skaven get Chaos Warhounds! Only recruitable at Hell Pit, these guys do not have vanguard, that is what wolf rats are for, but they have 2 Packmasters who have a little trouble keeping up with the unit, but lend some anti-large damage.

Broken Manticore: This is just like any other Manticore, but only available at Hell Pit itself.

Burrowing Behemoth: A vanguard monster that can summon units of Clanrats and Skavenslaves to its defense.

Chimaerat: Although it lacks the regeneration of a typical Hydra, this unit has a magical flaming warpfire breath and can 'Scurry Away' when it breaks, making up a little for the lack of regeneration.

Flayerkin: A Chaos unit for Skaven? Hit hard, berserk, good morale, what's the catch? Well, they lack the armour of true chaos units, making them a bit of glass cannon. They hit hard, but also get hit hard. Their actual main purpose to exist is to allow you to initiate a siege battle even without artillery, based on their use in the lore. But that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of their good attack and morale to cause some hurt on the enemy.

Giant Rats: Low-tier harassment unit. Their morale is not fantastic, nor is their damage, but they are cheap and numerous.

Mutant Rat Ogres: Much more unique, these Rat Ogres have higher morale, better close combat skill, more charge and . . .regeneration!! They will just generally be more effective and stick around longer in close combat.

Packmasters: A utility unit for Clan Moulder, they encourage your units, and also serve well as monster monters with decent anti-large and ap damage.

Slaves of Hell Pit: Another weak slave unit, but even worse than normal, as they are slow, starved man-things. This is yet another expendable Skaven unit. There is really no reason to use this unit over other meat-shield units, unless you are trying to create a themed Clan Moulder army.

Stormfiends (Ratling Cannons): The cream of the crop of armoured, augmented rat ogres, this version fires ratling cannons at you.

Stormfiends (Warpfire Projectors): The cream of the crop of armoured, augmented rat ogres, this version fires warpfire at you.

Stormfiends (Windlaunchers): The cream of the crop of armoured, augmented rat ogres, this version fires poison globes at you.

The Twin Cyclopian Giants of Level 9: A unique unit of 2 giants is no laughing matter, luckily for the enemies of the Skaven, Clan Moulder can only recruit one at a time, and they are only available from the depths of Hell Pit.

Throtlings: Basically a variation on the Giant Rat unit that causes fear.

Trolls of Hell pit: Trolls for Skaven, have fun!

Warpgnaw Verminlord: This Verminlord is not only an unbreakable deadly killing machine, but also has vanguard deployment, access to the lore of Ruin, and the ability to summon up extra units of clanrats and skavenslaves without mana. For those a little curious about where the Warpgnaw comes from, Forge World originally created the 'Exalted Verminlord', then the End Times blew up the warhammer world, and they decided to keep selling the same model, but give it a little more character, like the unique Verminlord types introduced in the End Times.

Wolfrats: Fast cavalry for Skaven. They fill the roll of Chaos Warhounds or Goblin Wolfriders. Chasing down missile units and artillery, harassing flanks, all that good stuff. In addition they do magic damage, helping them stand out from similar units.


Skaven – Clan Pestilens

Chained Ones: These are skavenslaves with slightly more hp and a shield. Their morale and hitting power remain the same, so the biggest use for these guys is in soaking up missile fire. As an expendable unit like other slaves they will not cause panic in your other units, and their shields and extra hp will help to soak up those missiles.

Frothing Giant Rats: Low-tier large unit with frenzy. Good for taking on other weak units or harassing missile and siege units, but they have low morale, so don't be surprised if they start turning tail.

Mad Rat Ogres: Frenzied Rat Ogres with a little bit of magic resistance and Campaign map disease immunity.

Plague Monks (Woe-Staves): This Plague Monk unit is a utility unit, instead of a straight up damage dealer. they do less damage than the regular Plague Monks, but encourage nearby friendly units and cause fear to the enemy.

Plague Rats: Slightly better Giant Rats, mostly because they do an area of effect poison damage like the plague furnace to represent their lore. Another depiction of their lore is the fact that if you break their morale, the unit will start dissolving like the undead do.

Plague Swarm: As with most swarms, this is a tar-pit unit. 99% of the time its only purpose is to hold up enemy units, though it will do poison damage if they can actually hit the enemy.

Plaguevermin: Stormvermin who do poison damage, that's about it, just slightly better stormvermin.

Pusbags: Pestilens slaves with flails. These guys hit pretty hard for low tier infantry, and their swarm of flies, attracted to all that diseased and rotting flesh on their bodies, gives them a little boost to melee defense. Their morale is still typical of slaves, with the addition that their diseased state may cause them to disintegrate upon routing, but they are still a cheap unit that can do some decent damage to armoured foes before they run away to melt in a corner.

Rat Spawn: These are chaos spawn for the Skaven with poison, pretty straightforward.

Rotten Rodents: Clanrats of Clan Pestilens. These are basically just clanrats with 2 hand weapons. While it doesn't sound like much of anything special, it makes them the only low-tier unit that is dedicated to fighting infantry. Like most clanrats, they won't stand long in a fight, but they can do some decent damage to infantry while they do fight, and even make a decent flanking unit.

Slimeblades: Clanrats that do poison damage. Use them to try and bog down fast enemy units such as cavalry and lords until your heavy hitters can get there.

Stinking Things: This unit is a small-ish unit of plague censors, but are instead equipped with great weapons that have a bonus vs infantry and regular poison damage. They are relatively elite, and good at taking on armoured infantry, but are just as fragile as the other Clan Pestilens units.

The Beast of Clan Pestilens: This single rat ogre, unique unit is quite deadly, but not invincible. He is best against blocks of low to medium tier infantry, or in assisting in a monster fight. If he gets singled out by the enemy, he will go down. He is, after all, just a large rat ogre with extra hp,damage and poison damage, not a demonlord. Also, I know the original Beast was slain by Nakai in the war for Lustria, but the idea of the Horned Rat blessing a single Rat Ogre to make it a crazy killing machine was too appealing to pass up.

Verminlord Corruptor: This Verminlord is not only an unbreakable deadly killing machine, but also has access to the lore of Plague, great anti-infantry damage, and an aura of plagueiness to harm enemies.


Skaven – Clan Skryre

Doomwind Mortars: Originally made as Poisoned Wind Mortars before the DLC that added those, this unit was repurposed as a slightly better Mortar, but obviously more expensive. The lore for Doomwind globes is entirely from Total War Warhammer 2 if anyone is wondering.

Jezzailachis: Originally made by request before the DLC that added Jezzails, I repurposed the unit with 3rd edition lore, giving them poison damage but lower range.

Rezziqueak's Warp-Doom Magma Cannons: Although it only has 2 engines, this uber-cannon will drop walls faster than regular Warp-lightning Cannons, which is their main purpose. They can also utilize a bound spell version of Crack's Call.

Tinker-Rats: Better range and missile damage than Warprats, but a small unit size at only 60 rats. Their main purpose is being a utility unit, buffing artillery units.

Verminlord Warpseer: This Verminlord is not only an unbreakable deadly killing machine, but has access to both the lore of Ruin and the lore of Plague, a single shot explosive orb, a bonus to nearby artillery, and decent ap damage.

Warp Copters: In most respects this is a Dwarf Gyrocopter unit, but instead of the Steam Gun it is equipped with Ratling Guns!

Warpfire Dragon: A rare but deadly choice for the Skaven, this dragon has a posionous aura, fiery breath, magic close combat attacks, magic resistance and regeneration. It is a deadly little unit.

Warpguard: A slightly better Stormvermin with Halberds unit. These guys have better armour and have magic and flaming attacks that apply the Burnt leadership debuff to enemies.

Warprats: Slightly better attack skill and armour than regular clanrats, but no shield, and they get a warplock pistol. They are a good short-ranged missile unit that can also hold up decently in close combat.

Warpstone Mutants: Mutated skaven slaves of Clan Skryre, these guys hit with a lot of momentum, really throwing off opposing infantry units. While not doing amazing amounts of damage, and having the morale of slaves, they can do a pretty good job of slowing up, and even hurting, enemy infantry of every level. Then they run away, like the good ratmen they are.
Last edited by Tanit; 26 Apr, 2020 @ 8:18pm