Creative Assembly has revealed more details about the fancy High Elves, one of Total War: Warhammer 2’s angry factions. Get the skinny on their leaders, dragons and troops below.
The High Elves are a tricky bunch. They use diplomacy as a weapon, making other factions fight or agree to deals that aren’t in their best interests. They’re not to be trusted. On the battlefield, don’t be fooled by their silky hair and slender appearance: they’re beasts.
“The High Elves are an elite force who, warrior-for-warrior, can outmatch almost any other race in the Warhammer World,” writes Creative Assembly. “Over the long millennia of their existence, they have mastered every style of fighting—whether you seek phalanxes of spears, unstoppable cavalrymen, dead-eyed archers or peerless charioteers, you will find them here.”
Like all the factions in Warhammer 2, they have two different starting positions, depending on the leader that you choose at the start of the campaign, and those leaders have very different abilities. Tyrion, for instance, is a peerless warrior and defender of Ulthuan and its Everqueen. His brother Teclis, on the other hand, is physically frail but strong in magic, and sees the entire world as his charge.
The Elves are blessed with a great deal of cavalry, but the most notable part of their roster are the flying beasts. Pick the Elves and you’ll be able to field six different types of flying monsters, from dragons to eagles. In Warhammer 2, flying units are considerably more versatile, too. Dragons, for instance, can spew fire while flying above the battlefield instead of dropping into melee immediately.
I’m still all about the Lizardmen though, I must confess. I got to play with them for a few hours in May, and there’s nothing like watching a bunch of dinosaurs with solar cannons strapped to their backs charging at a bunch of terrified enemies.
The High Elves – high-fantasy divas that they are – love to take centre stage. In Total War: Warhammer 2 they are no different, having created the Great Vortex that lies at the heart of the campaign, draining the forces of evil and Chaos out of the world.
Seem like a benevolent bunch, don’t they? Sure, that is what they want you to think, but they are also masters of scheming, espionage, and court craft. If you fancy your Total War experience with a dash of Game of Thrones, then this is the faction for you, and our High Elves guide will tell you all you need to know about them.
High Elves not quite your thing? Perhaps our Dark Elves guide is for you instead.
High Elf Traits
The High Elves, or Asur, inhabit the circular island paradise of Ulthuan, and while away their days reading tomes, practicing magic, and gossiping about who is consorting who. At the centre of this haven is the not so blissful Great Vortex, which each faction is seeking to exploit for their own gain.
This is done through rituals, which progress each faction’s storyline. To conduct these, the High Elves require Way-Fragments, which you gather by completing missions and improving your settlements through the main building chain (so upgrading from an Elven Village, to Elven Town, to Elven City).
One of the best sources of Way-Fragments are ritual resource sites – settlements that generate a large number of Way-Fragments each turn. These are denoted by a glowing Way-Fragment symbol. If you see such a settlement, make sure you go for it.
The High Elves’ trump card is ‘Influence’, which you gain by picking responses to unique dialogue pop-ups, and use to alter relations between any two factions in the game. This is useful to secure precious trade deals for yourself, say, or to play other factions against each other while you scheme up a way to stab them in the back. You can also spend Influence to hire Lords and Heroes with special traits; for 40 Influence, we got a mage who reduced local construction costs by 30%. We didn’t even send him into battle, but just left him in our capital.
Another handy High Elf trait is Espionage, which enables you to see whatever your trade partners can. By using Influence to raise relations with the Bretonnians in the Southlands, we were able to broker a cascade of trade deals, and explored half that continent without leaving Ulthuan. What’s that? You thought the High Elves were above such devious skullduggery? Bah!
You should also note the Elven Embassy building, which gives High Elves a bonus to income from trade tariffs. If you fancy getting filthy rich, spam these, ensure you are producing every tradeable resource you can, and pursue trade deals aggressively. Protect your reliability rating (so, don’t betray anyone), to give yourself the best chance of success in diplomacy.
Climate is one of the curiouser new traits of Total Warhammer 2. While climate is mercifully stable in the Warhammer world (the perks of using magic over fossil fuels as an energy source), everyone has their preferences. While you can technically settle in any region, you will incur penalties to construction and recruitment times, public order, growth, and income if you try and settle somewhere your people consider ‘Unpleasant’. These penalties get especially severe if you settle somewhere ‘Uninhabitable’. The Asur like to inhabit Frozen regions, Savannas, and Temperate Islands, don’t enjoy Mountains, Magical Forests, Temperate, or Jungles, and suffer the most serious penalties in Wastelands, Chaotic Wastelands, or Deserts.
The unique army stance of the High Elves is Lileath’s Blessing, which slows down their campaign map movement, but boosts their spellcasters’ XP gains by 20%, Wind of Power magic reserve by 15%, speed by 10%, while reducing miscast chance by 50%. So if you have mages or Teclis in your army, this stance is worth whacking on just before you head into battle.
High Elves Technologies
The High Elf tech tree is split into two branches – Military Advancement and Trade Advancement. This is a tad deceptive, because under Trade Advancement you will find a few handy military techs (such as Great Weapons, which increases weapon strength for some elite infantry by 5%). For the most part, however, Trade Advancements relate to empire growth. The final tier contains some real gems, like Maritime Empire, which gives you visibility of coastal areas across the whole world, and Rapid Resettlement, which reduces construction costs in recaptured settlements by 15%.
The military techs are split into four stages, each one unlocked by a gateway tech that requires you to build certain buildings. In the early game, it is sensible to focus on techs that complement each other and combine to supercharge specific units, rather than spreading yourself too thin. You won’t be coming up against terribly diverse armies in the early skirmishes, so you don’t need to worry too much about diversity yourself, and the stronger units that you start the game with – like the Flamespyre Phoenix and Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower in Tyrion’s campaign – are powerful enough for the time being.
So, for example, Spearwall and Naval Discipline go together nicely, because between them you improve the strength of Lothern Sea Guard (and Spearmen) by 10%, and their Leadership and Defence by 5. Spearmen will become obsolete, and though you technically don’t have a better archery unit, Sea Guard are one of the only ranged units in the game who are also strong in melee. They are almost as good at range as your dedicated archers, so we suggest getting them on-stream early, focusing on technology that buffs them, and continuing to field them until pretty much the end of the campaign.
High Elves Legendary Lords
The High Elves offer a choice of two leaders for two distinct campaigns. You will take charge of one of the twin brothers, Tyrion and Teclis, who are descendants of the legendary Phoenix King and Chaos slayer Aenarion. The pair have contrasting views about how to protect the Great Vortex and how to defend the elven capital of Lothern from opportunistic Dark Elf invaders. Tyrion is a hands-on warrior, and gets perks relating to combat, campaigning, and army management, while Teclis deals with the magics. He can learn dozens of spells across several different lores, enabling nifty combinations such as Net of Amyntok and Comet of Casandora. Try it – it is devastating. He also gets a +10 boost to relations with High Elves and humans.
Prince Tyrion’s campaign sees you defending the High Elf homeland. It is among the easier campaigns, with the neat shape of Ulthuan making managing your fronts early on uncomplicated, and the surrounding High Elf factions offering ample opportunities for forming confederations. With that said, the different High Elf factions aren’t exactly drinking fine wines together and bantering over who has the pointiest helms and longest staffs. They are a fractious bunch, and if you don’t properly manage relations with them, you may even find yourself at war with your fellow pointy-ears.
Teclis, despite being worn down by the curse of Aenarion (a sad family lineage story for another day), is an adventurer where his brother is a homebody, and he spreads the word of magic and fighting evil across the land. It is no easy task, so expect a rougher ride than with Tyrion. The campaign begins on the Turtle Isles on the west coast of Lustria, and throws you into almost immediate conflict with the Lizardmen and Dark Elves. A word of advice here is to try and take the ritual resource site of Tlaxtlan from the Lizardmen quickly, which will start raking in those precious Way-Fragments and give you an edge in the Vortex race.
Battle Tactics
The High Elves are a disciplined, flexible army with a good balance of units in the way of infantry, cavalry, and some seriously impressive air contingents.
Spearmen are the earliest units you have access to, which is a good start, as these guys have some of the best defensive stats among first-tier units. It is worth unlocking the rangey archers as quickly as possible, too, so you can have your classic line-up of spears in front and archers behind.
Warhammer Total War 2 High Elves Units
An excellent second-tier unit for more Machiavellian military strategists are the Ellyrian Reavers. These shock cavalry have the added bonus of Vanguard Deployment, which means that at the start of battles you can place them anywhere on the field outside the enemy’s deployment zone. Stick them in some woods while the enemy marches towards your main army, then once they get stuck into battle, crash into them from behind and watch the bodies fly. Classic.
Later on, the High Elves get the obligatory upgrades to their earlier units. Dragon Princes are arguably the best shock cavalry in the game, while the much-feared tabletop trifecta of elite infantry – Swordmasters, White Lions, and Phoenix Guard – are worth your close attention. Swordmasters are devastating anti-infantry damage dealers, White Lions are mobile hunters with great defence against ranged attacks, and tier-five Phoenix Guard are powerful anti-large tanks and one of the best infantry picks in the game.
One of the biggest tactical boons comes with the flappy flying units, which include giant eagles, dragons, and phoenixes. You unlock both the Flamespyre Phoenix and the Frostheart Phoenix simultaneously, and having them them rain their respective elements down on enemies like infantry and cavalry before your melee charges in is sure to demoralise them. Sprinkle enemies with ice attacks from the Frostheart Phoenix from to slow them down and soften them up, and then, while they are vulnerable, rain fiery hell down on them from the Flamespyre. After that, for the coup de grace, you can swoop into the target unit with both birds.
The trade-off for all this is that the High Elves only get one piece of artillery, and don’t have any ground-based monsters, therefore lacking the ability to cause serious fear and disarray among enemy units. That aside, they’re a discerning choice for those who believe war should be fought with style, panache, regal robes, and wing-crested helms.
As someone who played a whole lot of 5th (and a bit of 6th) Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle with Dark Elves, I’m pretty keen to see how they translate to Total War: Warhammer 2. For those wondering what the army is about, and the sorts of units likely to appear in the next Creative Assembly game, this article should give you a decent idea. To be absolutely clear, I don’t have direct insider knowledge here – this is all based on educated guesses from the tabletop.
The factions in the game tend to be based on 8th Edition line-ups (although some, like Bretonnia, didn’t have an army book for that version), so I’m going to be slightly out of date on newer unit specifics. But the broad themes of Dark Elf society haven’t changed a vast amount across Editions.
Update 14 July: The full, official unit roster has now been released by Creative Assembly.
Faction Summary
The Dark Elves are the exiled product of a vicious High Elf civil war. They now live in Naggaroth, a chilly land next door to the Northern Chaos Wastes. Naggaroth is basically where Canada would be, since Games Workshop pretty much lifted the Americas for their New World. Dark Elves hate High Elves, everybody else, and each other, in that order. Their society is based on cruelty, deception, and bloodthirsty murder. It’s implied that everybody in a position of authority (except their Witch King ruler) is being betrayed, poisoned, or stabbed around about every ten minutes.
Look, the sorceress behind him is already casting a betrayal spell.
In a more realistic setting every Dark Elf would be stressed out of their minds at all times. In Warhammer they’re more like ultra-murderous goths. They roam around in their Black Arks (mini citadels on the backs of huge sea creatures) taking slaves to run their economy (because they’re evil, and because their population is low), and taming the cold-blooded beasts that hang around the caves in their lands.
Legendary Lords
Malekith, the Witch King: A dead cert for the ‘main’ Dark Elf Legendary Lord. He’s name-checked in the Steam description for the game, and that’s him leading the Dark Elves in the announcement trailer. He’s the big boss in Naggaroth, so it makes sense. Originally, he was in line to be Phoenix King of the High Elves, but their weird hazing ritual of stepping into a fire just burned him up (possibly because in some versions his mum was a Priestess of Slaanesh – we’ll get to her). That pissed Malekith right off, so he took his followers to Naggaroth and spent the rest of his life raiding or invading the High Elf land of Ulthuan.
Classic 5th Edition Malekith. He’s quite the looker.
He’s both a sorcerer (Creative Assembly will presumably introduce the Lore of Dark for Warhammer 2) and great at hitting things in close combat. Since he’s an elf he’s still quite squishy, so I’d expect him to be hitting accurately and fairly hard, but unable to slog it out endlessly with tougher Lords. He does own some magic armour though, so that’ll help. Back in 5th Edition he would ride around on a chariot pulled by Cold Ones (large lizards we’ll also get to later). These days he seems to prefer a Black Dragon called Seraphon. The dragon will likely be a mount option Warhammer 2; maybe the chariot too.
Morathi, the Hag Sorceress: Malekith’s mum. Whom he still lives with. And probably sleeps with too (although the lore had tip-toed away from that particular aspect by 8th Edition). They have a complicated relationship. Since they’re so closely associated, Morathi is a solid bet for the second Legendary Lord spot. As her sub-title states, she’s a high level sorceress. Again, assuming the Lore of Dark is introduced, she’ll be using that. There might be some overlap with existing Lores there, since stuff like summoning a Manticore (Transformation of Kadon) used to be a pretty Dark Elf thing to do. In the tabletop, she’s always ridden into battle on a Dark Pegasus named Suluphet. For Warhammer 2, that’d probably be a mount option somewhere down the line.
90s Morathi, gunning for the Best Shoulderpads in Warhammer award.
As noted, in some Editions she was a worshipper of Slaanesh. These days I think Dark Elves worship the specific Elf pleasure god of Atharti instead (when they’re not worshipping Khaine, God of Murder), and Malekith has banned Slaanesh cults as they might undermine his authority. There aren’t any concrete details about Naggaroth lobbies for religious freedom protesting this injustice, but they’d probably just get murdered anyway. Update 13 July: Pretty much confirmed as the second LL by the Dark Elf faction trailer.
Crone Hellebron: Probably first off the bench as a third Legendary Lord option (in DLC, free or otherwise). She’s the defacto religious leader of the Witch Elves (we’ll get to them) and performs all the murderous rites of Khaine. Needs to bathe in ever larger amounts of blood every year, on a special and particularly violent religious holiday called Death Night, in order to retain her youthful appearance. Hates Morathi with a passion, but most Dark Elf authority figures hate each other so that’s not exactly unusual.
She would be a pure melee Legendary Lord, and is only behind Malekith and Morathi in Dark Elf society, so that’s why I’d think she might appear. In the Edition I played she would turn up to battle on a Manticore, but now I think she can be paired with the excellent Cauldron of Blood (which, again, is coming up). Either (or both) would work as mounts; the latter would be similar to Volkmar and his war altar.
Malus Darkblade: Another possibility for the addition of a pure melee Legendary Lord. He’s been in a lot of Warhammer fiction (in fact he started there before he was included in the tabletop game), and has a lot of associated questing for magical items (which means his Lord quests, if those are back in Warhammer 2, would write themselves). I think he’s behind the other three in the pecking order, but he’s popular, and I could see him being added as a one-off freebie at some future point.
Yes, my forename quite literally translates as ‘Bad’.
Heroes / Agents
Sorceress: Your basic wizard-type hero. As mentioned, will probably have a Lore of Dark or equivalent. The contents of Dark magic have changed a bit across the Editions, but some spell inclusions have remained consistent. It’s a magic type focused on hexing (debuffing) enemy units or characters (Power of Darkness, Word of Pain, Shroud of Despair), dealing direct damage (Doombolt, Bladewind), and AoE vortex types (Arnzipal’s Black Horror). Fun stuff, and it should all translate straightforwardly well to Total War: Warhammer 2. Update: Confirmed as a hero by official unit roster.
Assassin: I think an assassin hero for the Dark Elves is inevitable. They’re a major part of Dark Elf society, and they fit very well into the ‘agent’ role in Creative Assembly’s game. When not assigned to an army, they’ll be extremely proficient at murdering enemy characters. In battle, I’d hope they have some specific abilities for targeting and damaging fellow heroes and individuals. Update: Confirmed as a hero by roster.
In Naggaroth, you order one assassin but three show up anyway.
Shade / Scout: They may just include Shades as a full unit, but if not then I think there’ll be a scouting-based hero under that title. Would take care of scouting and espionage duties (possibly even helping to keep your own factional territory in line if Warhammer 2’s Dark Elves get any kind of treachery or disloyalty mechanic). Update: In the roster, but as a unit not a hero.
Beastmaster: Also an option for a hero. Dark Elf armies use plenty of beasts, so this guy could provide buffs to said creatures in battle, or reduce upkeep/purchase costs and so on. Update: No sign of Beastmasters. The third hero is a Death Hag.
Infantry
Spearmen / Swordsmen: The standard Dark Elf infantry units are armed with spears or swords (and usually shields, at least in the tabletop). Nothing too fancy. They’ll take the same role as basically any spearman/swordsman unit in the game; except with elf stats, so they’ll probably hit more regularly but get worn down more quickly by attrition. Update: Confirmed in screenshots.
Crossbowmen: These will be your mainstay missile troops. Dark Elves use repeater crossbows, which (in the version I played) meant twice as many shots at the cost of accuracy. So expect fairly rapid, slightly inaccurate fire in Warhammer 2. There used to be an amazing hybrid unit called Dark Elf City Guard which had crossbowmen on the front line backed up by spearmen behind, but sadly they got canned at some point. Update: Confirmed in screenshots.
In the tabletop game, repeater crossbow units would have you rolling SO MANY DICE.
Witch Elves: Present in the trailer and kind of iconic to the Dark Elves, so they’ll definitely be in. They’re frenzied murderladies with poisonous blades and an incredible resistance to the cold winds of their homeland. I anticipate a unit that can do a whole lot of damage very quickly and will never run away – but vulnerable to any missile fire and liable to melt away if left in a difficult fight too long. Update: Confirmed in screenshots.
Black Guard: Basically the best-of-the-best bodyguard troops and Malekith’s personal force. Armed with halberds (potential for Great Weapon status in the game, there), they’ll be able to take more punishment than the other Dark Elf infantry units. Update: Confirmed by unit roster.
Black Ark Corsairs: Hello sailors. This lot are the pirates and slavers who crew the Black Arks. They usually have a pair of weapons (no shields) and rely on their sea dragon cloaks to keep them out of harm’s way. They’re kind of a more hardy, less frenzied version of Witch Elves when it comes to combat. Update: Confirmed in screenshots.
A squadron of salty Corsairs. 7th Edition, I believe.
Executioners: The profession of executioner is apparently so abundant in Dark Elf society that they can form whole units of them. They used to be armed with massive double-handed axes, but that seems to have been switched to massive double-handed swords in newer Editions. If the Black Guard don’t get Great Weapon status for their arms, then these guys will (assuming they get included). Or maybe both. Update: Confirmed in screenshots (they’re the sword version).
Shades / Scouts: I used to love these guys. They could deploy deep into enemy lines (so they’d get Vanguard deployment in the game) and hassle opposing units all day long with repeater crossbow fire or the threat of a flank charge. Great for taking down war machines or isolated wizards. I hope they make it to Warhammer 2 as a full unit choice. Update: Confirmed by unit roster.
Cavalry
Cold One Knights: Cold Ones have gone through several iterations over the years. The original Marauder Miniatures line depicted these lizard mounts as kind of scaly sloths. Later they ended up looking more like Velociraptors. Either way, they’re great, and provide Dark Elves with their heavy cavalry. Cold Ones suffer from Stupidity in the tabletop game (or they used to), but it was rarely a problem since Dark Elves have high leadership. Creative Assembly don’t seem to really use Stupidity as a ‘thing’ (Trolls don’t have it) so it probably won’t be a direct factor. Update: Confirmed in screenshots.
The Dark Elves may all be jerks, but riding mini dinosaurs into battle is a solid decision.
Dark Riders: The Dark Elf light cavalry option. Might get Vanguard deployment. These are guys on rapid (and probably evil, somehow) horses. Good for very swift flank or rear attacks on softer targets. The usual light cavalry deal. Update: Pretty sure they’re in the screenshot showing the Lizardmen battle. Confirmed by roster.
Doomfire Warlocks: This lot came after my time, so I don’t know a whole lot about them. They seem to be another light cavalry option with weapons which inflict poison or curse type effects. Could be a decent option for inclusion as a light cavalry variant. Update: No sign of these guys.
Cold One Chariot / Scourgerunner Chariot: If Creative Assembly give the Dark Elves a chariot, then it’ll either be one pulled by Cold Ones, or a lighter version pulled by horses. Maybe both, but they’ll probably just pick one. Update: Looks like a Cold One chariot in the back-right corner of the screenshot with DE’s fighting Lizardmen.
Exotics
Repeater Bolt Thrower: The Elvish equivalent of a gatling cannon. It’s a bolt thrower that can fire off four bolts at once in rapid succession. Powerful and, thanks to the Elvish skill with bows, quite accurate for a war machine. Will probably have an ‘anti large’ tag in Warhammer 2. For a glorious period in 5th Edition these cost 50 points due to a typo in the Dark Elf army book. They upped it to 100 eventually, but that was still an absolute steal. Update: Confirmed by unit roster.
War Hydra: It’s a hydra, like from actual mythology. Poked and prodded into battle by Beastmasters, and then pointed at the enemy. Very tough, very cool looking, and I hope this makes it into Warhammer 2 (with or without Beastmaster handlers). Update 13 July: Is confirmed by the faction trailer.
Fallout 4 ghoul mods. Best in show ribbons all round for this beautiful prancing boy.
Kharibdyss: If we can’t have the War Hydra, then hopefully we can get this Lovecraftian tentacle monster from the sea instead. Basically serves the same role as the hydra (massive intimidating monster with lots of heads … or in this case, mouths). Also very tough. Also cool looking. Update: No sign of this chap, but could be added with relative ease by converting the Hydra model. Maybe a later addition.
Cauldron of Blood: Already mentioned in relation to Hellebron. This is, as the name implies, a large cauldron of blood carted around on an altar and attended by a Hag Queen. It protects and buffs any nearby Witch Elves and, again, is a strong contender for inclusion just on the strength of it looking intimidating and cool. Update: Confirmed by screenshots.
Harpies: The Beastmen in Total War: Warhammer already have these winged women, so there won’t be any problem adding them to the Dark Elf roster too. A useful flying squad to send after enemy war machines and the like. Update: Confirmed by unit roster.
Possible Faction Mechanics
This is a much more speculative area, but here are the aspects of Dark Elfyness that Total War: Warhammer 2 could dig into for faction mechanics.
Really, really hate High Elves (like, omg, so much): It can’t really be overstated how much enmity the Dark Elves hold towards their poncier former brothers. Older Editions of the tabletop game tried to reflect this by doing things like giving Dark Elves much higher leadership when battling High Elves (because they never want to run away from an opportunity to kill them), slightly offset by a desire to charge at them whenever possible. That wasn’t much of a penalty though, since with the buffs you’d tend to come off best in any ensuing combat.
The point being, Warhammer 2 will hopefully employ some kind of balanced set of bonuses and penalties when Dark Elves meet High Elves on the field, reflecting the utter burning hatred one has for the other.
Slave Economy: Creative Assembly have already tested the waters for a unique economic system with Bretonnia’s Peasant Economy. I can see the Dark Elves getting something similar. Slaves don’t fight in Dark Elf armies, so the Bretonnian recruitment-vs-farming trade off wouldn’t work here. You’ll maybe have to make sure your cities are well garrisoned (or have enough protective buildings) to prevent slave revolts. Or make sure you have enough Black Ark port/harbours bringing in fresh blood, or something. The option to enslave captives after battles could play directly into this as well. Rome 2 already had a bit of a slave economy system, so that could potentially be adapted and expanded for Warhammer 2.
As you’ve probably gathered by now, they’re not the nicest faction.
Constant Treachery: While they never seem to plot much against Malekith himself, the Dark Elf Lords are depicted as stabbing one another in the back (figuratively and literally) at all times. They’re like Crusader Kings 2 vassals in overdrive. There might be some kind of strategic mechanic to reflect this, like needing to maintain a certain level of fear among your lieutenants to keep them in line. Warhammer 2 won’t be as driven by character narrative as something like CK2 though, so this could be difficult to add in a way that’s actually fun.
Sign in sheet editable. Death Night: A wonderful annual religious holiday when the Witch Elves go (even more) mental and drag random Dark Elf citizens out of their homes and off the streets to be ritually sacrificed. Except for a few male children, whom they train to become assassins. I expect to see this appear in some form, though it may just be a pop-up campaign event which grants you an assassin Hero or something to that effect.
Total War: Warhammer 2 is due later in 2017.
The High Elves are a proud race living on the Ulthuan Island, who also own some overseas colonies. They have a highly sophisticated culture, great army and extensive knowledge of magic.
About High ElvesWarhammer Total War 2 High Elves Units
The High Elves have a great army. It consists of skilled archers and good infantry; even the simplest formations can do serious damage on the battlefield. The High Elves also have access to hybrid units, which are as adept at bowing as at swordplay. The cavalry and war chariots aren't half bad either. Their army's supported by magical creatures such as phoenixes, great eagles and - last but not least - powerful dragons.
The high elves are also masters of magic. Their mages can control one of the three domains (High Magic, Life and Light), and the Loremasters of Hoeth have access to various powerful spells from either domain. Additionally, one of their Legendary Lords, Teclis, also commands powerful magic and skills.
The intrigues will allow you to coax even the bitterest enemies into an alliance.
The society of the High Elves revolves around courts, and the courts revolve around intrigues. Hence, you will sometimes be informed about some of the events that are happening close to the throne and asked to make a decision. Additionally, during the game, you will earn Influence points, which allow you to manipulate the relations of other nations. The influence can also be used to recruit lords and heroes.
The High Elves have good economy and they can make some good money on trade. Their lords and heroes have skills that can improve the efficiency of trade even more. You don't have to look far for trade partners, too - the humans from the coast of the Southern Lands will be happy to trade, for example. In addition, one particular technology allows you to lift the fog of war from all bodies of water, which effectively lets you to carry out diplomacy with any nation with sea access.
This race has many enemies. Their main enemies are the Dark Elves, led by the rebellious brothers. They will often raid Ulthuan. Apart from them, you can also expect attacks from the worshippers of the Chaos, the Norskan warriors, as well as the Skaven. The relations with the Lizardmen are also far from peaceful. You can trust the humans and dwarves to be your allies.
Available leaders
Just like in the case of any of the above races, the High Elves have two available leaders in the core game. Your choice of Legendary Lord determines the faction-wide bonuses, as well as the initially available units, and the skills that you will be able to use via the Lord. Additionally, they have different starting points, which affects the difficulty level in the beginning. To gain access to the second Legendary Lord during the campaign enter into a confederacy with his faction. Download gta v part 2.
Tyrion (Lothern) - an awe-inspiring warrior who's able to further strengthen himself in battle with various skills and abilities. He can mount the magnificent horse, Malhandhir. You begin the game in Lothern, in southern Ulthuan. The immediate neighbors are mostly other High Elves, which grants Tyrion a pretty peaceful beginning of the campaign. The reduced recruitment time and upkeep will also come in handy (applies for basic units: spearmen, archers and Silver Helm Knights). The initially available units include: the Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower and Flamespyre Phoenix. The bolt thrower can significantly weaken the enemy ranks before they get close enough to engage in melee combat, and the Phoenix is able to cast missiles from air - it's also useful for getting rid of artillery or ranged units.
Teclis (Order of Loremasters) - he's a mighty loremaster who uses spells from different domains (the Winds of Magic aren't required). You begin the game on the southern shores of Lustria. This means you're surrounded with numerous hostile factions of Lizardmen, the Skaven, Dark Elves or Greenskins. The potential allies, on the other hand, are few and far between. The bonus for relations with humans won't come in handy until later in the game. The magic bonuses are much more significant: the recruited mages instantly get 5th experience level and Teclis has more Winds of Magic points during battles. The initially available units include: Hoeth Swordmasters and Frost Phoenix. The Swordmasters are excelent shock troopers. The Frost Phoenix, although unable to attack from a distance, is more effective in melee combat than the Flamespyre Phoenix and also gives a combat penalty to nearby hostile units.
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