Total War: WARHAMMER III Dark Elves Day One

Recently, I chose to start a new campaign in Total War: WARHAMMER III and decided I wanted to journal my whole experience playing as one of my favourite factions: the Dark Elves. Now, I used to play them a lot in Total War: WARHAMMER II but had yet to try them in the third game. 

So, why play the Dark Elves of Naggarond and their king, Malekith? Honestly, it’s because they’re so deliciously evil. The High Elves of Ulthuan try to hide their superiority behind a veneer of nobility, but the Dark Elves take that up to eleven. Add in some great units and Malekith is an absolute beast in both magic and combat and you have the perfect experience.

Firstly, let's just take a look at some of the Pros and Cons of Malekith’s gang of goth hot-topic Elves.

 The Pros and Cons of the Dark Elves

So, what’s different about the Dark Elves in Total War: Warhammer III? The first thing to know about the evil Elves is that their economy survives by taking slaves from other races. You still earn money, but you have to keep up a healthy number of slaves to keep your people happy. You do this by fighting battles, raiding, and attacking settlements. It’s a good mechanic as it means you have to keep attacking constantly but also have a reason to attack locations that your Elves don’t want to.

There’s more to the mechanic than just having slaves, however, as they have a pretty important purpose for building as well. You can elect to use some of your indentured servants to finish a construction project instantly. This is exponentially helpful as you can respond to what you need and, in the later game, you usually have enough slaves to build up settlements quickly. 

Dark Elves also have access to Black Arks, massive ships that can build their buildings, as well as quickly create armies where you need them. They take a while to get going, but they can allow you to launch raids across the entire map quickly. 

Then there’s their troop roster, which is one of the best in Total War: Warhammer III. You, as the commander, have access to the edgiest named units ever, including Dreadspears, Bleakswords, and Executioners. You’ll also be able to choose from some of the best leaders before you start, although I still think Malekith is best due to his combat and the bonuses he gives to loyalty.

On that note, we should look at some of the negatives of the Dark Elves. First things first: your generals have a loyalty mechanic, and they will betray you if you don’t keep it high. While it isn’t the biggest issue, it can become a problem in the later game when you have more armies walking about. Secondly, while you have very good units, you don’t have much heavy armour or siege equipment. This can be an issue when assaulting forts, as you have to get in close. 

Finally, there’s no global recruitment mechanic, which can make building new forces tricky. For those who don’t know, there are two ways to recruit armies in Total War: Warhammer III: the first is local recruitment, which only lets you build the troops provided by the buildings in a certain territory. 

The other is global, which lets you build troops from every building in your empire, but it takes longer and costs more. As you can imagine, this means that if you need to build a new force, you either have to start in one of your more developed territories and walk to where you need them, or wait until you have decent recruitment options. This is slightly improved with the Black Arks, but it can still be a major hindrance if something goes wrong and you lose one of your armies. 

Finally, and this is more of a problem with Total War: Warhammer III in general, you really need the DLC to get the best overall experience. See, the issue is that a lot of the great units are all hidden behind DLC and as such, if you don’t have them, you’re going to find the army pretty underpowered. 

We start the campaign in the name of the Witch King!

As I begin, I am faced with a small force of Skaven, and they hold the one settlement I need to hold the whole Iron Foothill Region. Unfortunately, unlike the prior games, the Iron Foothills only has one settlement, which I need to capture. It’s not tricky, but it does limit what buildings I can get initially. To the north of me are some damn chaos lads called the Mung who I know will be an issue. To the east is Ghrond, another kingdom of Elves, while Skaven, Tomb Kings, and Grombadil the White Dwarf litter the lands to my south and west.

 

First things first, deal with the Mung while also being very aware that one of Khorne’s lovely Valkyrie, Valkia, is also in that direction. Realistically, I don’t want to fight her too early as her initial force is surprisingly tough. On the other hand, I don’t want to wait too long as her armies will only get stronger, and the chaotic corruption will soon become a problem. 

I plan to take out the northern barbarians to get some experience for Malekith while making plans to take over the Chill Road to my east. It’s their own fault for not being the same kind of Dark Elves as me, after all. The initial fight with the Mungs in the north is pretty easy, but in doing so Valkia has now started to raid me, putting a halt in my plans for Ghrond in the east.  

Valkia strikes 

With Malekith stuck at the ex-Mung capital of Ironfrost, I am left with a choice: do I move to attack Valkia now, or wait for her to come to me? Overall, waiting seems like the better choice in this instance, as I don’t think I can take her with only my base army. However, I have made a brief peace with Ghrond for now, but only for as long as it takes me to build my second army. Unfortunately I don’t have long to consolidate as Valkia has decided that it’s time for the siege, and the battle for Ironfrost begins. 

The fight is very tough at the start, thanks to the high strength of Valkia’s forces. However, I place troops from the settlement into the nearby woods as sacrifices to draw off some of the enemies’ forces. This works, and Valkia herself even attacks them, blunting the initial charge of her main army into my spear Elves. Surprisingly, that small force of Elves actually survives the battle, so good on them. 

Meanwhile, at the main conflict, my crossbowmen manage to take out a significant number of enemies alongside Malekith’s chill wind. However, the real MVP is the sorceress, whose Cascading Fire-Cloak and Flaming Sword of Rhuin give my Elves the edge they need to smack down the chaos warriors. Eventually, the Khornate legions flee the field, allowing me to quickly destroy them and Valkia in a follow-up fight.

Betrayed… kind of, and a change of focus 

However, now is not the time to rest on my laurels, as I’ll need to quickly take Valkia’s keep to stop her from being a constant thorn in my side. On the way there, I crush one of her other armies, just to make sure no surprises are waiting for me (and gain a fancy chariot in the process). However, the Elves I just made friends with have already placed it under siege with a much bigger force than I have. Then Valkia quickly offers me a peace deal, with 3000 gold attached, only to be killed afterwards, which is a nice result. 

This has left me at something of an impasse, however, as going straight to war with Ghrond could be a mistake. I can’t leave them, and will possibly win, but Malekith’s army is still damaged from the pyrrhic victory over Valkia. As such, I’ll hold off for a few turns and instead look to my southern border and Malekith’s old drinking buddy: Grombadil.  

Join us next time as we see just how well that campaign goes; it’s Dwarves, after all… so it can’t be that tough… right?