Games: January 2013

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 4, Mission 5

The Reiksmarshal says he needs your troops, but doesn't actually take any.
You can win this with NO losses at all, not even losses to be resurrected. On Hard Difficulty. Using no potions or other one-use items.
The city you have to protect has a wide front that breaks into two lanes before converging again. Between the enemy entry point and the convergence point are many allied troops you cannot control.
The allied units are your buffer against anything that slips past,and they will eventually get mowed over if you just let them defend. Take the proactive approach and defeat the enemy on the field.
It would be much nicer if we could just have the enemy coming from one direction, but that lets them bring in cannons and have a lot of troops and mess in between for you to get at them. We want to hit the enemy as they come in, especially their artillery.

Walkthrough

For heroes, you must take Von Kessel and Aurelion. For the other two, take the Warrior Priest and the Light Priest.

Initially they will be in one team but we will split them into (Aurelion + Warrior Priest) and (Von Kessel + Light Priest): That is, each side must have a healer and a tank. Since the Light Priest is the most fragile, we gave his team the strongest tank.

For regiments, take ALL shooters. I went with 6 handgunner regiments and 4 elven archer regiments (on Fire Arrows). For artillery, 2 Empire Cannons (longest range) and 2 Hellblaster Volley Guns.
Divide your forces into two equal defensive lines, one for each of the east and west lanes.

Phase 1: Deployment

Set your assault teams: Just group every unit in each team together in one hotkey, to be moved in formation together. Initially, set them to column formation for faster moving. Once they are ahead of the barricades, you can switch them into the usual long row and block off a lane.
For heroes, put them together for now in one group. Remember that the Light Priest cannot have a mount, so you need to be extra careful when you start moving the team. If he falls behind too much, use his invisibility spell (Fading Twilight) and don't make him attack, just run after the others and catch up.
Deploy them as close to the northwest as possible. When deployment ends, move them all up to where the passage branches off. While they are moving, set all Archers to use Fire Arrows.

Phase 2: Secure the Northwest Corner

There is a HellCannon in the far northwest corner. Charge your heroes there (along the way, you may want to cast his healing circle (Restoration of Isha) on the allied regiment at the barricade that gets hit). Try to go around enemy regiments, but if you can't, fight till they flee and continue. Don't get bogged down. If necessary, use the Captain's Righteous Wrath to blast out and go for the cannon. The demons there will not fight you if you do not fight them.
As soon as the cannon is destroyed, you can probably leave the heroes on Hold Fire OFF and they will survive for a while. Switch over to one of your assault teams and move them up, destroying anything along the way if necessary. Set their formation to the typical wide battle front, and choke off the west lane, in front of all allied regiments and angled to cover both roads.
Get your heroes back to this battle front, drawing all enemies with them. Your forces should be able to wipe them out quickly. Don't linger -- it is not necessary. From here on, the battle line is meant to hold its own without any significant management. Leave the Warrior Priest here, ahead of the line to draw all fire. He'll be fine if his armor is decent since he can heal himself. The other three heroes should head for the northeast corner where there is another cannon.
At this battlefront, if you put the Warrior Priest too far ahead, enemy Axe Throwers will be able to attack him but not enough of your forces will be able to attack back. Just pull him back a bit so that they are forced to close into range of your own shooters. But no matter what, keep him in front. The northwest will suddenly see a huge push of enemy forces, but your troops should do fine.

Empire Campaign Chapter 4 Mission 5 - northwest battle line

Phase 3: Secure the Northeast Corner

Same as before, but this time there are more enemies to get past. Fortunately, this area is smaller. When you deploy your own forces, they will probably be quite farther forward and closer to the map edge.

Watch out that you are not so close that enemy reinforcements appear in the midst of your battle formation and immediately melee your regiments.
You can be close enough to the start of the road there so that as soon as the enemy appears, they are under fire.

After the cannon is clear and your forces are in place, put Von Kessel in front, the Light Mage BEHIND your lines, then send Aurelion back to help the Warrior Priest.

Empire Campaign Chapter 4 Mission 5 - northeast battle line

Phase 4: Furies

All your forces are now so far ahead that when Furies fly in from the east, they will start wiping out allied forces. Eventually they will die, but you can send one regiment of handgunners down to help. Just set them to attack the Chaos Furies. They should be safe because the Furies will be busy attacking an allied regiment. Once the enemy blip is gone from your radar, move your handgunner regiment back.

Phase 5: Chaos Sorcerer and Battering Ram

Huge battering ram, major push of enemy forces, and a Chaos Sorcerer sneaking in. Do NOT let your heroes get duelled because they need to be drawing fire from enemy regiments. Use Volley Fire from your handgunners as soon as the Sorcerer is in range. That should immediately blow off half or more of his health, and some attention from your heroes or just concentrated fire from your defence line should kill him off quickly.

Phase 6: Thorgar

Some time after the Battering Ram, the Demon Prince will appear in the Northeast. Alone. A three-regiment handgun volley followed by a few seconds of fire from your defence line will probably kill him. Shortly after that, even if there are enemies on the field, the mission will be won.

We completed this mission with NO models lost at all. No one needed to be resurrected, although the Light Mage was very useful in allowing our heroes to be swarmed in combat and still fight their way out.

Empire Campaign Chapter 4 Mission 5 - victory notification

Empire Campaign Chapter 4 Mission 5 - mission result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 4, Mission 4

Like all duels in both campaigns, this is easy. Parry if you have to.
Afterwards is your final chance to reinforce both armies.

Aurelion's elven army will not be initially in town, but you can move her to the same town as Von Kessel.
You can bring 2 additional heroes, a total of 10 regiments, and a total of 10 siege units. If you are short on cash, keep these figures in mind and decide what you want to use in defence against a siege.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 4, Mission 3

There is an item to the far southeast. Grab it before moving forward since the enemy patrols in the middle and northern parts of the map stay on a fixed route and do not wander downward.
Find and charge the cannon with heroes before moving your regiments far enough for them to be sighted.
The Chaos Champion can throw his Axe of Doom. It is hard to avoid letting this kill models in your regiments unless they are initially out of sight to the Champion. You could try rushing him with a hero and quickly engaging him in a duel.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 4, Mission 2

Basically a straightforward and easy mission.
There are unlimited Goblin reinforcements, either from the south or northwest. You can use these not just to level up your regiments but also your heroes, if you have the patience for it. At a minimum, aim for 5/5 for all your key skills. The rest of the Chapter is easy enough that with good core skills you can win easily.
Because destroying the enemy buildings is a mission win requirement, you can clean out the entire map of enemy regiments and farm the goblin reinforcements until you are ready to end the mission.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 4, Mission

The Light Mage Restoration of Isha is unwieldy to use on battlements and only resurrects the recently dead, so we will not clear the battlements with a melee regiment, and will have to find another way to limit losses. In any case, bring him.
Fire Arrows are good here even though there are demons, but only one or two regiments need to have it on.

Walkthrough

Lead with Aurelion, follow with all archers and Light Mage. Keep the archers far in the back and let Aurelion draw all fire. Place a Restoration of Isha healing circle at Aurelion and back her up with arrow fire.
Once the exterior is clear, have Aurelion use Wrath of Khaine on wall archers. Cautiously move your own archers up if you can be sure she will draw all axe thrower attacks.
After both cannons near the gate are destroyed, destroy a section of wall and move in with Aurelion.

The third cannon at the other castle corner cannot fire into the castle courtyard as that would be firing behind it, and its arc of fire is limited.
Support her with arrow fire from OUTSIDE as it is more certain she will draw all fire inside Some axe throwers may remain on the wall or head down, and may end up behind her and between her and your regiments if you move in too close.
Minor losses are fine here since the Light Mage can easily resurrect just a few losses as long as you cast SPELL early enough.

The warriors inside are heavily armored and you might not be able to kill enough quickly while keeping Aurelion healed. Switch more archer regiments to Fire Arrows if necessary to make them retreat and take pressure off her.
You should have plenty of time left over, and no net losses (possibly no losses at all).

Empire Campaign Chapter 4 Mission 1 - mission result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 7

The cannons do not count as enemy units that must be destroyed.
Sometimes fleeing enemy regiments are at the edges of the map. You may want to have at least one mounted hero or regiment so that you can quickly search the map.
Both siege points must be captured, although this is not one of the win objectives.
The Altar to the east can heal/resurrect 150 HP and does not regenerate.

Walkthrough
Initially we wanted to mimic how we handled sieges in the Chaos Campaign: That is, use a regiment attached to a hero who could resurrect losses. However, the Warrior Priest "The Undying Servant" skill was bugged and basically useless for us, so we had to try something else.
The basic idea is the same as open field combat: Draw fire with Von Kessel, bring up handgunners as support. Now that we have the Warrior Priest to heal heroes, Von Kessel can draw artillery fire for a long time as well as get severely swarmed in melee. We take the Bright Wizard along because he has excellent area effect spells that work best when enemies are thick and clustered in melee and not on the move -- such as when they swarm Von Kessel.
We ended the mission with only three handgunner models (not regiments) lost, but resurrected using the Altar.

Phase 1: Initial Deployment

Bring only shooting regiments, or mostly handgunners and whatever regiment you want to fill a model count because we have the Shrine (non-regenerating 150 HP). Bring two cannons, the Bright Wizard, and the Warrior Priest.
Deploy the cannons forward and in the middle, and all troop regiments a bit farther back. Von Kessel up front.

Keep your handgunners grouped, and in column formation to keep them as tight as possible. A too-long line just makes it hard to keep them from being targeted by enemy cannons and Axe Throwers -- You need to make sure your heroes are a shorter distance to the enemy than your regiments.

At the start of battle, send Von Kessel up to just out of range of the Axe Throwers behind the barricades outside the gate. Watch out for the initial Hellcannon fire directed at him, then send up the handgunners. One regiment should occupy the Siege Tower immediately.

Phase 2: Destroy the East Cannon

Von Kessel's forward position should let you see both cannons. Start cannon bombardment on the cannon to the right (east) of the fortress gate. When that one is eventually gone, bombard the other.
Meanwhile, send in Von Kessel to attack the Axe Throwers and move up your other heroes and regiments for support, but not so closely as to get hit by stray Hellcannon fire. A large force will swarm from the castle because you now have at least one unit close enough to it, and the area will be flooded. Turn on Armour of Contempt for Von Kessel, although that is probably not necessary if his armour is over 10. Start healing him with the Warrior Priest. Hit the area with Conflagrations and Fireballs.
During this time, the east cannon should be destroyed. If not, just continue shelling. It is important to hit the east cannon first because we will need to destroy the enemy forces to the east near the Altar before they drift over to attack us from the flank or rear.

Phase 3: Siege Point 1 and Altar of Vitality

When the initial rush of enemies is destroyed, send Von Kessel up to capture the first Siege Point. If he is badly injured, keep the Warrior Priest nearby to heal. Otherwise turn on Armour of Contempt. When the Siege Point is captured, pull Von Kessel back out of range of the Axe Throwers on the wall.
Meanwhile, if the east cannon is destroyed, send the regiments with the other two heroes taking point to clear the enemies to the east. If the west cannon is also destroyed, Von Kessel can assist.

Phase 4: Wall Axe Throwers and Main Gate

When both cannons are destroyed, have Von Kessel just ahead of the battering ram to escort it up, until it is safely at the gate. Assemble your handgunners out of range of the Axe Throwers, and to intercept any enemies that come out.
Start shelling the walls to either side of the gate to open more of a hole for you to move in all your regiments later.
Use the Bright Wizard to fireball Axe Throwers on the walls. If you like, you can also move just a few handgunner regiments closer to the wall to start shooting at the enemy there, with a hero ahead of them; but the enemy there is well protected from shooting by the battlements and there is a chance that the enemy will still throw axes at your regiments. Mild losses are okay if you want to experiment since we have an Altar that will restore 150 HP of models.

Phase 5: Rush the Courtyard

When the gate is battered down, retreat the battering ram far back. If all Axe Throwers on the wall have been destroyed, it is time to rush the courtyard. Send in Von Kessel far ahead to draw all enemies. Follow with the other heroes to assist, and behind them, pour in all your other regiments (and yes, the siege tower CAN go under the gatehouse and into the courtyard).
Focus on keeping Von Kessel alive and all the enemies tangled up with your heroes so your handgunners can safely assemble and start shooting.
Clean out everything but don't take the siege point. You should still have plenty of time, maybe as much as 10 minutes or slightly less.

Phase 6: Healing and Win

Send any wounded regiments to the Altar. Send your heroes around the map to make sure no enemy regiments have fled to the map edges. Also collect all items on the ground if you didn't have time to do that earlier. When all regiments are at full strength, capture the second siege point to win the mission.

If you have captured both siege points and haven't won, then probably an enemy regiment has fled to a map edge and you will need to hunt them down. You therefore don't want to wait until the very last moment to capture the second siege point in case there are enemies left that you don't know about.

Empire Campaign Chapter 3 Mission 7 - mission result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 6

An easy mission, although there will almost certainly be early losses due to WyrdSpawn being summonned in the midst of your regiments, especially if you have a hand-to-hand regiment.

We recommend using new regiments of all the Archers and Shadow Warriors you can buy, plus anything else you like.
It is tempting to bring the Light Mage, but you don't really need him yet. You can win with no hero casualties, and still bring most regiments up to full level 3 model counts. By getting him after this mission, you benefit from him starting at a higher level if Aurelion gains levels here.

Especially if you are using green troops, try to pull the enemy one regiment at a time by hitting them with Aurelion's Wrath of Khaine to get their attention. Axe Throwers behind barricades probably won't move even if hit, so you can either use spells to kill them or inch your longer-ranged archers or Shadow Warriors up (we recommend Shadow Warriors because their low model count makes it harder to level them from level 1).
The Altar of Vitality has only 150 HP.

You need to share it with an ally, which brings the actual total down closer to 100. If you want to get the full 150 HP, before you capture it, kill off the Tiranoc allies with Wrath of Khaine and Phoenix Shot.
Don't heal your heroes unless you have to: Save it for your regiments.

The final Chaos Shrine periodically creates WyrdSpawn and we can use this to level up our regiments.

Regiments gain XP only if they kill the target, but heroes can gain XP if they are merely close to the action. You can therefore use your heroes to soften up the WyrdSpawn with spells.

At the final Obelisk of Purity, the Sorcerer and the Wyrdspawn closest to him may not move if you hit them from far away. Everything else advanced toward you.
The next mission ends Chapter 3, so remember to buy any artifact from stores, as well as the Light Mage and the Captain. Top up all model counts and head into the final mission.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 5

Strangely, although the enemy hero was a level 35 Skaven Warlord who used all sorts of skills (including the level 25 Skavenbrew skill), Aurelion didn't need any skills to win this. Just wait and win with regular attacks.
If you are fast with the mouse, you can zap the enemy with a Wrath of Khaine bolt, and possibly get in an extra one or two if you can catch the skaven hero with Flames of the Phoenix.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 4

This is a fairly easy mission even though you have very few archers. Just make sure your heroes are always the first choice target for any enemy regiments coming. Melee units are not necessary and casualties are unlikely.
There is no hidden treasure at the extremes of the map, so just defend at the camp fire.
For deployment, arranging your Archers in a "V" formation at the camp fire lets them cover the south side as well as the west/east sides. Shadow Warriors have good range and can be placed in the middle along with the Repeater Bolt Thrower.

Switching the archers to Fire Arrows seems to do better in terms of overall kills, possibly because the broken regiments eventually wander back (because of a still-high model count?).

After this mission, a Light Mage is available. Although he has the Restoration of Isha healing/resurrection skill, he is unnecessary for Chapter 3, so wait until the last possible moment to buy him in order to maximize his level when you get him -- new heroes start at the same level as your main hero, but without any XP toward the next level.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 3

You must take Von Kessel and the Warrior Priest, and may take a third hero. If your Bright Wizard has a rank 5/5 Conflagration of Doom and 5/5 Spell Focus, you may want to take the Jade Wizard instead and develop him since there might not be anything particularly interesting left to get on the Bright Wizard.
The skeletons respawn until you destroy the big tombs. The respawn time is quite long, so if you are trying to farm XP here, you might want to try doing it with the Vampire Lord. The level cap is 35.
The Vampire Lord respawns in the same place whenever he dies, unless you have destroyed his sarcophagus. Each time you kill him, you get XP. However, this isn't necessarily sustainable indefinitely because:

The vampire has a fear aura that drains morale.
The vampire has a soul steal ability.
The vampire will go for your lowest armour character, so Von Kessel has to solo.

If Von Kessel is going solo and his hit chance is quite good, you could give him the Warrior Priest's hammer, which does +1 damage.
Or, you could shift gear to the Warrior Priest so that he has the highest armour rating, then go in with the Strength of Sigmar spell.
The Jade Wizard can stand off and help with spells as his Command skill tree has spells that are cast on regiments instead of affecting only the regiment he is attached to.

The mission does not end until you pick up the Sword of Manfred, so there is plenty of time to make sure you have smashed all the small tombs for loot.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 2

This mission requires rushing.

If you do not keep AHEAD (not just keep up) with the caravan, you will not have time to choose how you engage the enemy, and may be attacked from the rear by units hidden in the fog of war at the edges of the map.
From the very start run ahead and start clearing the map. This should give you the extra time you need to explore any side passages and root out all enemies there -- Enemies that are probably scripted to hit the caravan from the rear after it passes by.

There is a small goblin camp. Remember to destroy the dwellings there for loot.

Ideally you will have enough lead time that when you get to the pass with low ledges on either side, you can sweep each side of orc or goblin archers one side at a time without having to worry about the caravan getting shot at in the middle of the pass.

Take the Bright Wizard and prioritize his use of area spells over the Captain's use of skills, since the Captain can survive melee for a long time. This helps you mass-kill and power through each encounter as quickly as possible.
For regiments, take all shooters, preferably all handgunners as you can more predictably move them together as a group as opposed to skirmishers. You really don't want to waste time fixing your formations here. Change marching formation to column instead of the usual row to tighten the group into one mass of shooters and help them engage the enemy faster instead of wasting time deploying in a wide row.
It should be possible to clear this map with no unit losses although mild losses from enemy spell use may be unavoidable and down to chance.
After this mission, you will get to the first town. Remember to get the Warrior Priest a horse.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 3, Mission 1

Easy mission. The half-hour time limit is very long, enough time for you to move back and forth in the map a few times.
There are items in the northeast corner and in the southeast.
The optional objective requires you to destroy the two regiments in the southeast. Until you do so, reinforcements will periodically emerge from that location and head for the city.

Save this objective for last in order to milk it for Experience Points. Clear the rest of the map and park some regiments near the priest (not too close, or you will trigger quest completion), then head back and camp near the southeast to kill skaven reinforcements until the time limit is almost up. Then clear the area and grab the items before rescuing the priest.

The Warrior Priest starts at whatever level Von Kessel was at when he began the mission, but without any XP toward the next level.

Since Von Kessel takes point, if you are happy with his basic hit chance, you may want to give him the Warrior Priest's hammer, which does +1 damage.

Skills:

You probably brought in the Jade Wizard for the first time in this mission.

Since we already have a strong front-liner in Von Kessel, skip the Armoured skill and aim for 5/5 ranks in Father of Thorns.
You could aim for 5/5 in Earthlord, but it is really not that great. Stormlord is also quite weak since your chances of hitting decrease dramatically. Instead, I recommend Spell Focus to maximize the frequency with which you can cast Father of Thorns since it is an awesome blocking skill that paralyzes an enemy, preventing them from moving or casting so you can safely shoot them to death.

For the Warrior Priest, aim to get both Faith Endures and The Undying Servant at rank 0 (by satisfying the prerequisites). After that, go for 5/5 with The Undying Servant. The Warrior Priest is the only Empire hero who can heal and resurrect, so get these specialities first.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 7

During the pre-deployment phase, when you choose your heroes and units, you get to choose from both the Empire and Elven forces.

You can swap gear, but some gear is specific to a race.
After you swap gear, you can still choose "Retreat" to not start the mission yet. The item swaps will still be done, so you can save the game at that point in case you don't want to start the mission yet, but don't want to have to re-do your item assignments.
Keep in mind that you won't be able to freely swap items between armies until much later, so you want to make sure both armies have something.

For the Elven Army, Aurelion is the main hero and will always be deployed, but the Commander is the main front-line hero, so his armour needs to be fairly high. He should be close to getting Knight of Khaine (which can give +2 to +7 armour for 20 seconds), so focus on Von Kessel in terms of Armour, but try to get him at least Armour 8.
Aurelion doesn't have to have high Armour because she will have the Commander in front, and in any case if she has to be deployed alone, you can move gear over. The crystal relic that increases your mana pool and that does not need to be equipped should be given to her as her mana requirements are much larger (she primarily uses her Wrath of Khaine in combat).
For the Empire Army, Von Kessel needs the most armour. The remaining items can be given to the mages.

For troops, if you don't take any Elven troops or heroes, Aurelion will be all alone in the castle. All elven forces start there, and CANNOT change initial deployment (not even to put archers on the walls). You will need to set Hold Fire settings, formation, and Fire Arrow once you end the deployment phase.
For what troops to take, recommend:

Elves: As many archers as you can, which probably means two regiments of archers and 1 regiment of Shadow Warriors. Also take the Repeater Bolt Thrower. Definitely take the Commander.

You are allowed a total of three heroes, and two of them must be Von Kessel and Aurelion. If you do not take the Commander, Aurelion could get killed if she is engaged by the enemy regiments as her armour is much lower than the Commander's (who can and should have taken Armoured and Tenacity skills to 5 ranks each).
You will probably not have time to flip back and forth between the two forces, so you need the elves to handle themselves without any babysitting from you. This means a high-armour hero who can survive getting axes rained on him and getting swarmed in melee.

Empire: All the missile units you have (we brought level 2 Pistoliers and four regiments of level 3 handgunners). No need to take Hunters here unless you have nothing else that shoots. For less micromanagement, take the Helblaster Volley Gun as that does not have friendly fire issues.

If possible, get Von Kessel up to level 25 (the level cap for Chapter 2) as we will get a Warrior Priest hero in the first mission of Chapter 3, and level 25 means access to either hero healing and regiment resurrection skills. Not a big deal if you don't, but it's nicer to start with those right away.

Walkthrough

When the Deployment phase ends, quickly do your elf deployment. Just turn on Fire Arrows, turn off Hold Fire if you brought the Shadow Warriors, and move your Commander forward toward the gate.

There should be good distance between the Commander and the troops because the Chaos Furies will be sent in and need to be intercepted. When Furies attack, they wheel around in the air and might target regiments if they get too close.

There is no need to manage the Furies -- When they attack, the unit that is attacked gets and immediate retaliation no matter what they are doing at the moment, so ultimately your elven heroes will kill them while having taken only minimal damage.

Obviously Aurelion should be behind the Commander.

You will probably be busy handling the Empire advance, so she'll probably be completely idle.
You could attach her to a regiment and periodically turn on Blessings of Asuryan to improve their hit chance, but mana is probably better spent by Von Kessel and/or casting Spirit of Battle on the Commander whenever he is attacked.
I preferred to keep her unattached in case enemy regiments surround the Commander and end up in contact with the elven regiments. She acts as a second focus of attention.

It is safer to keep the gate closed, but you could keep it open.

If closed, it's harder to predict where the Champion of Chaos will come over the wall, and therefore harder to intercept him with your own hero before he can throw his Axe of Doom (although he might throw it anyway).
If open, the enemy forgoes crawling up the wall and just funnels into the gate, where your Repeater Bolt Thrower can get easy targets while they traffic jam there either trying to get in or trying to get out because Fire Arrows broke their morale. There is less certainty that your regiments won't get engaged in combat, however.

If you have full regiments of veteran archers, there is actually a luxurious amount of time for the Empire forces to reach the castle, especially with the gate closed. Advance cautiously at the start before rushing to clear the enemy at the castle gates.

There are Chaos reinforcements just to the east of your starting position, and a little later, a pack of Warhounds from the west, from around the mountains that block your sight. If you do not have Von Kessel blocking the ones from the west, they could charge your flank and kill off a couple of models before you can shoot them all to death. Handle all these first, then it should be clear sailing toward the main gate where you will encounter lone regiments.
Set handgunners to column formation as that seems to engage regiments faster than layering them in rows.

The forces of Chaos have two cannons to the far west. If your army is too close, they will turn to attack your army. Keep all forces east of the main gate and they should be fine. Advance on t he cannons and the guards only with heroes. Despite the great number of enemies there, two or three heroes should be able to handle them. Then destroy the cannons.

If you send all three in, be ready to pull one out (probably Aurelion as she mainly fights with spells anyway) to intercept enemy reinforcements headed around the burnt houses so they won't engage your regiments directly. It shouldn't take long for your great number of archers and gunners to wipe out any reinforcements. Just don't move them too close to the Hellcannons until those are destroyed.

If you managed to somehow intercept the Chaos Champion before he throws his Axe of Doom at your regiments, you could end this mission with no losses. Otherwise, losing a few models is probable.

Empire Campaign Chapter 2 Mission 7 - win result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 6

Just keep using the Parry skill and win.
The next mission ends the Chapter, so after you finish this mission, buy the Jade Wizard and any items from the store that you want, if you haven't done so already.

We recommend this to be the time to buy the Jade Wizard as you didn't really need him for any previous missions and you have levelled up Captain Von Kessel as much as you can before the final mission. Remember that heroes start at the same level as your main hero when you get them, so the later you get them, the less you have to level them up.
You don't have to assign any skills to the Jade Wizard yet since you probably won't use them in the next mission.

Since the next mission ends the Chapter, you also need to look at Aurelion's army and store as this is also her last chance to visit her store. For the next mission, you can swap items between the Empire and Elven armies, so keep that in mind when you go shopping (although we just bought heroes and artifacts, and topped up regiment model counts).

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 5

A very easy mission if you are patient and do some scouting when you get the chance. There are a few additional things we can do if you take the time to more fully and carefully explore the map, however.
It is still not yet necessary to buy the Jade Wizard, so hold off until later when we can further improve the Von Kessel's level.
Except possibly losing a few models to the Champion of Chaos Axe of Doom throw, you should be able to finish this mission with no casualties.

Walkthrough

For regiments, just take all the missile troops you have. Take at least one regiment of Hunters and one cannon.

For the other piece of artillery, I recommend the Helblaster Volley Gun, which does not appear to have friendly fire drawbacks.
As usual, put Von Kessel up front to draw enemy attacks and let your regiments shoot unhindered.

The initial attack waves are scripted to head straight down to your initial staging area. You don't really need additional time to handle them except for one particular instance, so deploy to the far west. The attack waves will still walk straight down before wandering west to look for you.

This buys us a bit of additional time to handle the Champion of Chaos -- the Axe of Doom throw is generally hard to avoid and can kill a few models in a regiment. If you can wipe out the attack wave just before he comes (the one that includes Warhounds of Chaos), you can rush Von Kessel up to intercept the Champion before your regiments come into range of his Axe. As soon as he throws his Axe at Von Kessel, it is in cooldown. Rush your regiments forth to shoot him to death. You don't really want to duel him because that could take a long time and you need Von Kessel to intercept the Chaos regiments behind the Champion of Chaos.

After the attack waves are over, deploy your army on the south side of the bridge and wait while you explore the map a bit.
There are a couple of items to the southeast.
On the west end of the river is a ford that leads up to a ridge.

Send Von Kessel in alone to destroy the Hellcannon, then plant your own cannon there.
When you see the Axe Throwers in the northwest, they will start moving. You can bombard them, or let them go to the bridge. If they pass close enough to the ridge that your cannon is in range of their axes, they may pause to attack, so pull back your cannon.
There are Axe Throwers just on the other side of the bridge. If you bombard them, they will retreat eastward, but not far enough that you can't keep bombarding them to wipe them out.
A large regiment of Chaos Warriors will also probably move down the bridge. After that, there should be no more enemy movements.
Send your Hunters over but not too far. Move them to the riverbank just to the east of the bridge. From that position they should be able to see two regiments to the east. (From your side of the river, you can just barely see the Axe Throwers but not the Chaos Warriors).

Advance your army to the end of the bridge but stay on the bridge. Move Von Kessel onto the north shore. He will try to get the attention of these regiments. Bombard both regiments with your cannon. That will get them moving. Unless they see someone far enough ashore, they will turn back, even if you continue to bombard them. To save some headache later, draw them out now and destroy them.
After this group, there should be no more Chaos units, except the sorcerer in the far northeast corner (which you can spot with your Hunters if you put them on the ridge).

When you are ready to attack the sorcerer, target him with your cannon. He will summon some daemons then head down to the east side. Since you have already destroyed the regiments there, he cannot link up with them so he will advance on your position alone.

If you deploy everyone on the ridge, he and the daemons will have a too-long walk across the bridge to get to the ford and cross to the ridge. Typically, this will cause all of them to walk back over the bridge to the north side of the river.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 4

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 3

Long but easy mission.
Buy every ranged unit you can and fully upgrade their fighting ability, but not their armour if you don't have enough money.
Use Fire Arrows on the archers to quickly repel the skaven. Don't worry about trying to fully kill each wave, just about surviving with no losses and exploring the map safely.
Definitely get the Elven Commander because Aurelion can't take point for long with her somewhat low armour rating.

Buy passive armour-related skills and maximize his armour with whatever gear you have. Put him up front unattached to any regiment, and generally have him stand still and intercept enemies that get close so they do not engage your regiments directly. He should be able to last a long time but definitely support him with all the missile troops you have.
The Commander does not use his bow unless attached to an archer regiment. Aurelion never has a ranged attack no matter what regiment she is attached to. He and Aurelion can hit at range with their spells, so just use that and let your regiments auto-fire at the enemy.
If you can delay getting the Commander, you can try maximizing Aurelion's level and then buying him later. New heroes join at whatever level your main hero is when you get them, so the later you get them, the less you need to level them up.

You can't field a full force of shooters, so take whatever else you can for emergency intercepts and hero backup, although you probably won't need it.
Creep slowly. Mostly just hold ground and take point with heroes.
Explore the map first to flush out any Gutter Runners before destroying the crystals.

Destroying the crystals just stop the lone Rat Ogres that come from around the middle of the map, where the green crystal disks are.
After you clear the map of other skaven enemies, if you have the patience for it, park your army there and collect XP for killing Rat Ogres until your heroes reach the Chapter 2 level limit of 25.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 2

Even the Spearmen, who supposedly have extra Armour when they use their shield stance, die really fast -- faster than Empire Swordsmen using Shield Parry.
Try to be careful with Aurelion and how you use her to shield your units so that the Archers can win fights for you.
Use Fire Arrows against any non-daemon units to reduce contact time with Aurelion.
If possible, use Aurelion to draw the enemy away from your archers instead of simply standing in front and engaging them in melee. This can buy you a little bit more time to break their morale with Fire Arrows.
Aurelion has a long sight range and good range with her Wrath of Khaine spell, which you should maximize along with Spell Focus. Use her to sight for the Bolt Thrower or pull enemies with her spells.
For the final fight, she can't really stand in front. Put her behind and use her spells. Select one regiment to be up front while your archers try to win it for you.

Walkthrough

Wait for the Marauders from shore nearby, behind the trees.
Wait for Marauders near the Chaos Totem to move away.

If you hit the totem, they will beeline for you.
When they turn to walk away, rush for the totem and destroy it in melee. With luck, the archers will awaken and help you fight them before they turn around, see you, and come for you.

Take point with Aurelion and destroy the Marauders in path to the west guarding some gold. You should be able to do this with no losses, and possibly without ever letting Aurelion get into combat if your archers can break their morale early with Fire Arrows.
Move Aurelion and archers toward the path up into the mountains.

Typically you need to be on the plateau to see the knights, but not always. See the picture below. The sooner you see and target them, the longer lead time you have to shoot them. See the
Take point with Aurelion. Hopefully the knights will quickly get repelled by the Fire Arrows and each time they come you can get them to flee quickly.
After the Chaos Knights are clear, inch up and find the demons. Lead them out and along the base of the mountain to give archers more time to shoot. They have 2-damage attacks and explosions and can drain Aurelion's HP too early in the mission.

Empire Campaign Chapter 2 Mission 2 - Chaos Knights sighting

From the plateau where you take control of the Bolt Thrower, inch along the path to the east until you see the Axe Throwers. Get your positions ready and hit them with the bolt thrower. Marauders will join them. Have the bolt thrower and Aurelion focus on the Axe Throwers while the archers focus on the Marauders. Destroy them, then head back down the mountain to get the spearmen who are useless but which you may need to take point instead of Aurelion, especially during the final assault.
Locate and attack the knights guarding the pass to the Silver Helms that you may have seen when you attacked the Axe Throwers. Come at them from the direction of the beach instead of letting them close quickly at you from the pass earlier. Possibly lead them away from your regiments with Aurelion so your archers can hopefully destroy their morale and make them flee.
Assemble back on the ridge where you found the ballista.

Make sure the ballista can shoot at the bend where the Chaos forces will have to turn to get up to the ridge.
As soon as you hit one, all will mobilize. Put the spearmen up front and try to safely support them with the ballista shooting at units just behind the front lines. Remember to turtle the Spearmen in their shield formation that supposedly gives them more armor when facing the forward direction.

We came through this mission with just 2 Spearmen left after the battle, and we also lost 2 archers due to the Axe of Doom throw from the Chaos Champion. It then cost us about 15000 to outfit the elven army for the next mission.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 2, Mission 1

A really easy mission if you can avoid getting blasted by the Lightning Cannon. Otherwise, just bring lots of handgunners.
Securing the Mustering Horn (standing a unit near it for 30 seconds) will call reinforcements for both yourself and the skaven.

Once the Horn is secured, almost the entire skaven camp will mobilize and move toward you.
Allied Level 3 Knights and Level 2 Handgunners will come from the east. They will largely be ignored until they kill the Skaven Warlord. As they exit the map, StormVermin will slaughter them.
Skaven will also receive light reinforcements from the west.

Walking in between the plague clouds is tricky as the unit could still be diseased without you being aware. There is nothing visible on the unit if it has the plague -- just a chance that a model will suddenly fall dead.

The safest way past them seems to be going around to the west, hugging the western mountain base.

"Destroying" the altar of vitality transforms it into a non-regenerating shrine for the empire that can give you units. Since this is quite an easy mission, you might consider not filling out your regiments prior to the mission and using the altar for 50 HP worth of units.
Destroying the skaven camp means destroying the Warpstone Pinnacle. Leave it along if you want to use the Altar of Vitality last.
Not sure if you can do anything with the Neutral Helblaster Volley Gun during the mission but you get it at the end of the mission.

Walkthrough

Sight the Skaven Lightning Cannon and units nearby with your Hunters, who have a long sight range. Move your cannon just enough to hit and draw the units around the cannon. Clear them before rushing the cannon with just the Captain.
Deploy in the southeast. You are too vulnerable to being sighted by the lightning cannon. The Stormvermin near it cannot let it target you for some reason, but the Poisoned Wind Globadiers can.
At the ridge west of the horn, you can set up your cannon and Hunters. Hunters can hit the patrols, drawing them up to you one regiment at a time.
Shell the enemy until the Warpstone pinnacle is used up, then advance on the camp carefully.

If you do not approach the camp, the enemy regiments will stand still while you continue to bombard them. Do this if you think you cannot handle the horde.
If you deploy on the ridge west of the horn, you might be able to slow the advance of the skaven horde by getting them into a traffic jam as they turn up the hill.
When you get close enough to the camp, all but one regiment of Stormvermin will start walking to you. The Warlord will remain behind. Reinforcements will come later.
When you get close enough to the Warlord (going farther into the camp than is necessary to trigger the skaven army moving), he will move, but will go back if you pull back far enough away.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 6

Time is quite short but it's possible to win without taking the outer siege point. In any case, it seems that the outer siege point only adds a couple of minutes.
You will need to get close to all items in the fortress courtyard to count as "found" and have the game automatically pick up when you win. Also, regiments that charge your cannon can drop items, so it actually helps if you don't win too quickly. We got a total of 5 items plus some gold.
Infantry regiments can have a siege tower or a gunpowder barrel, but not both. A single gunpowder barrel will not destroy a section of wall.
In the far northwest corner outside the fortress and from where the Marauder reinforcements march is a SteelThread Cloak (+1 Armour, +3 Magic Resistance) that is probably not worth the headache to get. You need a hero to pick it up. Sending a regiment there won't allow them to pick it up and you won't automatically get it when you win the mission.

Walkthrough

Method 1: Rush for Inner Siege Point

If you are really having a lot of trouble getting through this mission, just go for the quick win.
Get some swordsmen up the wall fast, and then rush down into the courtyard for the inner siege point. Turn on all defenses (Captain's Armour of Contempt skill, Swordsmen's Shield Parry) and capture the siege point for a quick win. You'll probably take horrible casualties on the Swordsmen and possibly miss grabbing the Armor of Retribution (dropped by the Chaos Knight regiment).

Method 2: Clear the wall, grab courtyard items, take Siege Point

We managed to do this with just 11 losses, but it is very tough, for several reasons:

If you don't micromanage your cannons, they can blast your own troops while targeting the enemy or taking down a wall section (collapsing a wall also kills all troops on that wall section).
Sometimes regiments just get stuck and can't do anything or move very slowly and won't attack. It helps to have ranged attack regiments because they can kill some enemies and hopefully cause the traffic jam to clear.
Sometimes regiments will walk down stairs to get to the nearest enemy they spotted somewhere, so you might need to micromanage their targeting, especially melee.

Bring into the mission 1 regiment of swordsmen fully upgraded, and four handgunner regiments.

Leave two handgunner regiments to support the defenders at the cannons. They can mostly go on automatic targeting except when the knights come, whereupon you will probably want to Volley Fire the enemy.
Attach Captain Von Kessel to the swordsmen. Leave the Bright Wizard unattached.

Send the Bright Wizard ahead alone.

Yes, alone. Not even armoured -- prioritize the Captain for armour rating.
A single model is pretty hard to hit with a cannon, and even if it were hit, a hero can survive a couple of shots.
Rush the Wizard to the corner of the fortress so you can keep the Hellcannon there sighted for your own cannons.

A few seconds after you get the Wizard running and drawing cannon fire, send up the swordsmen and the two regiments of handgunners. The swordsmen should take the lead so they will draw axe thrower fire first. At the base of the wall, turn on all defenses on the swordsmen and head up. Attach the Bright Wizard to the nearest handgunners, then send the handgunners up the wall as well.

Ideally the handgunners should have the Swordsmen in between them and any enemy melee regiments, so that they can keep up their shooting. If you are able, garrison them in a tower, but beware of enemy regiments trying to retake it.

The enemy will pour out of the fortress but your assault force is now on the battlements, so they can only head to the cannons.
If the HellCannon is destroyed, turn them on enemy regiments instead of the walls. Try to keep an eye on the cannon position to make sure your handgunners still cover it and the cannons haven't drifted too far ahead as you manually target them.
Once you have cleared the battlements, the castle will probably be empty. If you have a few minutes left, turn your attention back to the cannons and their defence. Finish up any enemy regiments, then capture the inner siege point for the win. Items on the ground should be automatically grabbed when you win.

Empire Campaign Chapter 1 Mission 6 result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 5

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 4

Here are general tips for playing the Empire Champaign in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, on HARD Difficulty. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.
We won't be hand-holding you through absolutely everything, but instead just give tips on situations that we found tricky or that you might not have considered.

Chapter 1: The Call of War

Mission 4: Retribution (Erstedorf)

Overview

Overall a pretty easy mission, just a lot of running around. It is pretty hard to lose this mission as long as you are not careless and expose your regiments to too much direct combat, since a lot of buildings need to be razed for the mission to be considered a failure.
Having a lot of shooting regiments also helps as time is really not on your side, and melee tends to be a slow grind. Move your entire army around as concentrated fire to destroy each enemy clump is better than trying to protect multiple fronts.

If you lose any models, it is probably because you were not able to move the Captain in front to draw fire, or from the Aspiring Champion's Axe of Doom throw, against which you can't really do anything about.

Remember to grab the banner from the farmland way outside the town proper. It is probably impossible to save those buildings, and even if you did, it would mean you would miss out on the items dropped.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 3

Here are general tips for playing the Empire Champaign in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, on HARD Difficulty. A list of all our Warhammer: Mark of Chaos articles can be found here.
We won't be hand-holding you through absolutely everything, but instead just give tips on situations that we found tricky or that you might not have considered.

Chapter 1: The Call of War

Mission 3: Green Dawn (optional)

Overview

Same tactics as before. Focus on getting Armour for Von Kessel, with Tenacity, then saving points for Armoured from the Combat tree. His armour should be 7, or 9 with Armour of Contempt, and enough to easily survive melee without fear of losing too much HP as long as he is supported by handgunners and fireballs from the Bright Wizard. For this mission went with as many handgunners as we could.

Refill your regiments before going in and your barrages and Volleys should be pretty devastating and help you win. Fireball whenever you can to soften up the enemy but don't immediately charge into battle to help Von Kessel if he doesn't need it.

Against the Giant, you can either go around the west and avoid it, or attack. Detach both heroes and attack it, but really you are just buying time for your three regiments of handgunners to shoot it to death.
For the orc camp, fireball the nearest regiment and retreat (or if the regiments move, pull back until they turn back). Try to pull just one or two regiments. The Night Goblins can poison, but this doesn't seem to do much to Von Kessel so make sure he is in front. There is no particular urgency to engage them in melee as the Captain should have enough armour to survive getting shot at.

This is the last chance to buy items in the current store as it will change after the Erstedorf mission.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 2

The halberdiers are there to help you against trolls in this mission. However, in general, having a lot of shooters (in this case, handgunners) is more useful overall, so we recommend not upgrading them and instead buying as many ranged units as you can in all of Chapter 1.
Aim to develop about 6 ranged regiments. Hunters are okay, but they are mainly scouts and unless you have no more handgunners to deploy, just deploy only one regiment of hunters.
You start with 6150 gold (assuming you got all the gold in the last mission) but that is actually not a lot. Don't splurge but buy the basics: Extra Handgunner regiment, best weapons and a Champion for all Handgunner units.
At this point, we also recommend full upgrades for a single regiment of Swordsmen, who at this early stage of the Empire campaign will still need to block for your shooters, and in any case you will need them in sieges to secure the battlements.

At Garlech, you can buy two magic items:

Blade of Slaying (+15% hit)

Looks great, but skip this. You can get something more useful in future missions.

Staff of Transference (more Mana).

Buy this and give it to Von Kessel. Makes a lousy weapon, but more Mana means more fireballs from your Bright Wizard.
You will get a Staff of Sorcery from Mission 2, which is probably more usefully given to the Bright Wizard.

Walkthrough

Take point with a mounted Von Kessel and try not to let him get surrounded.

If there are only melee units, lead them about as much as you can to let handgunners fire while they chase uselessly.
If there are missile units, quickly break through and engage. He just needs to delay them and reduce overall attacks directed at our regiments. Use Handgunner Volley Fire and Bright Wizard Fireball to break the immediate enemy in front if he cannot ride around the battle.
Overall, try not to pull too many enemy regiments and watch for patrols that can come to you. Most enemies guard a position and will withdraw back to their start if you move away far enough.
Don't chase broken units - Just let them reform and come back, and let your handgunners shoot them.

We ended this mission with the loss of only 1 Swordsmen model.

Empire Campaign Chapter 1 Mission 2 result

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Empire Campaign - Chapter 1, Mission 1

Straightfoward mission, but trickier if you want to get through with no losses whatsoever. Unlike the Chaos Campaign, you do not have easy access to unit resurrection. Remember that our walkthroughs use Hard difficulty and unless stated we DO NOT rely on potions or other one-use items.
After this mission, do not go crazy spending the little money you have.

E.g., Since handgunners are going to win your fights for you, give them the best weapons. And since you are putting units in front of them to draw fire, for now do not armour them.
As you continue forward with Chapter 1, keep in mind that you may need about 15,000 gold to outfit the elves after Chapter 2, Mission 2.

You will get a Bright Wizard after this mission. I recommend aiming for Fireball and Spell Focus to pump out a lot of effective fireballs. There is no friendly fire associated with it, so it is a very good spell.

If you insist on tanking with Swordsmen or some other melee unit, then you could build up the Flaming Shield of Andor and continue with the enhancements that make the protected unit dangerous to approach. However, since we prefer to aim for zero unit losses, we arranged our units with the Captain up front and the Wizard slightly behind for early fire support and emergency support.

If Von Kessel is going to take point (and he can get a high armour rating quickly that he can do so comfortably), move the magic ring from the Bright Wizard to him.

Walkthrough

Fight 1: Marauders

Sit tight and let them approach. Volley them with handgunners before turning on armour buffs and engaging with front line of swordsmen.
It's okay to use the swordsmen armour buff because we are relying on the two regiments of handgunners to do most of our killing anyway.

Fight 2: Marauders and Axe Throwers

Unfortunately, these regiments are close enough that they will move together so we can't pull them to engage them one at a time.
There's no time limit, so wait for your handgunners to finish the cooldown on their Volley ability. You can use one or both here, but you'll probably want to save at least one for later.
It's a bit tricky, but send Von Kessel ahead ALONE, at the Axe Throwers. Once he gets their attention, turn on Armour of Contempt for an additional +2 to Armour rating.
Now that Von Kessel is ahead, the Marauders will probably swing around to attack him because he is closer. Turn Von Kessel around to attack them. Use Storm of Steel to help.

When you turn Von Kessel around, the Axe Throwers will be able to shoot again. This is fine for now since we just don't want them to freely throw at our regiments, who have 1 HP a piece and we could lose a few models to the barrage.

While Von Kessel is moving up, send the three regiments to back him up as long as it looks like the Marauders are committed to attacking the Captain.

The swordsmen should hit the Marauders from behind and hopefully between them and the handgunners, finish them off before Von Kessel is dead.
Turn on the swordsmen armour buff because the Marauders will probably turn their attention to the swordsmen.
You can try the line formation on the handgunners since that seems to arrange them more quickly (so they can fire sooner) than the default row formation.

Finally, mop up the Axe Throwers. As soon as any melee unit (whole regiment or just one model, like a lone hero) engages a shooting regiment, the entire regiment stops shooting. Note that just being in melee distance does not count as engaging -- a regiment must be attacking with hand-to-hand combat in order to stop a regiment from shooting.

Fight 3: Rescue the Bright Wizard

Once Fight #2 is finished, assemble and head down immediately to reinforce the Bright Lord.

The Bright Lord can last a while, but you still want to hurry because we need to take advantage of that. The sooner we can take pressure off him, the more HP he will have to tank for our regiments.
Don't put any regiment in the tower as it is too far to be useful later.

March up your regiment fairly close to the Bright Wizard but do not engage with the swordsmen. Let the handgunners volley and kill most of them before sending in Von Kessel and the Swordsmen.

It's nice to use the volleys here instead of in Fight 2 because the sooner you can clear the Marauders, the sooner you can charge the Axe Throwers. If the Axe Throwers advance while you are still entangled with the Marauders, getting Von Kessel to intercept them might cause him to take a couple of hits while pushing through the Marauders.

Once the Axe Throwers start moving, you need to intercept them before they get too many throws. Have Von Kessel take point and turn on Armour of Contempt. He is probably injured from the previous fight so you need to support him.

Once the Marauders near the Bright Lord are gone, just direct everyone to attack the Axe Throwers. When the Swordsmen get close, turn on their armour buff as well and just attack.

With a bit of luck, you should be able to get through this mission with 0 losses. At this early stage it's not a big deal to lose a few models, but we will always try to finish missions with no net losses.