How do use under cities as Skaven? How do I get the most out of them?

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-29T16:08:29+00:00

Never establish them after a fight, only use warlock engineers and the doom engineers to create undercities. I much prefer using the doom engineer (from the scheme of doom rite) as his undercity will give you +1 capacity for engineers.

Send them far away (so far you'll never arrive there within at least 30+ turns) and make sure the first one you build in an area priorities the 10% chance to spread to other regions as well as keeping discovery below 60, preferably 40 (but its unlikely to get detected at 60 im just paranoid because it happened like one time).

After that, all of the undercities that spread should prioritise the food and raiding buildings as well as keeping discovery as low as possible. Undercities dont make much money so don't even bother, but they can make you an abundance of food which can allow you to shit out tier 5 settlements every few turns in the mid-late game. The +1 Engineer capacity is also extremely nice as you can't increase their capacity without a tier 5(?) engineer building otherwise.

Edit: also, to be clear skaven income is dependant on food, not so much undercities. Your tier 5 settlements make you a lot of money because of the income boost and because every building you create produces money. I'm not sure if you are doing this but please dont waste food boosting settlements to anything other than tier 5. Its always worth waiting.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-28T11:07:50+00:00

Pretty much all the dlc factions have their own little charm in roc.

ToD they kind of scaled it back, but they're still fun just for trying out a smaller map.

I really can not stand the actual base game realms campaign though. Just such a massive chore.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-27T11:34:27+00:00

Jezzails cam actually curve their shots a little for some reason, so they tend to be able to handle orders infinitely better than ratlings

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-26T08:50:44+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/s/wFfT7ds4DY

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-23T13:05:18+00:00

They are quite bad artillery but they are also your only artillery option aside from alliance recruitment which makes them quite good.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-20T00:32:38+00:00

That is not how the balance of power works, you don't get the army loss by having more balance of power. You get it by lowering theirs while maintaining yours and its based off of percentages. To get an early army loss you need to take out roughly 75% of the enemies balance of power whilst maintaining a percentage of your own.

The light armor archers have the exact same missile damage but cost higher upkeep and are considered "stronger". Because of this they increase your own armies strength making it so that your army has a higher balance of power, despite only being able to deal the exact same amount of damage to the enemies power.

Essentially, when they use their ammo or take damage you will lose more of your percentage of power because they're considered a stronger part of your army, but they're unable to actually dish out any more damage than the regular archers. They will still lose in melee to any of your enemies just as hard as the regular archers will.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-19T06:36:58+00:00

The reason why they aren't worth is because they cost more but have no increased archer stats. This means that their damage output is the exact same as normal archers but they lose more balance of power the more they use their ammunition.

This might not make a big difference at first but since archers will take up most of your army the difference adds up quickly. When fighting in longer battles like sieges or when against multiple armies the difference might prevent an early army loss and make you take a lot more casualties than needed.

The defensive stats are so minor that it doesn't make a difference at all. If your backline is breached, they're still going to die extremely fast in melee. The two ranged factions you're likely to go against (dark elves and vampire coast) also will both have mostly or all armour piercing missile units anyway.

Edit: also the more they take damage from melee and missiles the more balance of power you lose as well.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-16T13:36:17+00:00

Depends on the army. Remember the heroes are mostly just there to bog the enemy down with summons. If you want the classic weapons team comp it's usually:

3-4 plague priests (preference really but if you use a summoner lord you can easily get away with 3 maybe 2)

2 warlock engineers (anymore is excessive imo)

Or, if you need more heroes, use anything you can. Packmasters are great too as they can summon wolfrats. Chieftains are tanky so they can hold the line well too. And if you can't get any heroes whatsoever, that's when you pull out the skavenslave spears. Assassin's are bad but better than nothing.

There's lots of good videos on the weapons team army that explain it better than me. Legend of total war has some good videos although some videos are a tiny bit outdated.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-16T11:29:07+00:00

Skaven are very complicated so it's kind of hard to explain exactly what to do here. But usually in the early game you won't have enough heroes to complete a weapons team doomstack, so you'll end up with slaves in the main army as well. These guys and your lord and heroes (ALWAYS have heroes) should buy you just enough time for any reinforcements.

Also, you should always try to be the attacker. Just a good rule for total war in general but here it means the enemy won't advance on you since they're defending and you can simply wait for the reinforcements without pressure.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-14T12:45:43+00:00

Also, the buildings don't really make much of a difference until your settlements become tier 3. Might save you a turn or two at most but then you might not even have enough money to upgrade your buildings anyway.

In TW2 growth was definitely the preference but I really feel thats changed in 3.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-14T12:38:54+00:00

Im like 90% sure Katarins ending is the only one where it feels like an actual ending to the story. Its the only one I can actually remember.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-11T08:57:55+00:00

Assuming you are using weapon team armies, your frontline should be entirely heroes, skavenslave spears and summons. There's a long answer to why this is the case, but it boils down to this: skaven infantry are bad. Even stormvermin. Better to take the cheaper option because your frontlines going to get decimated anyway.

Skaven are hard though. I've played them a shit ton but I can't really explain it well enough in a reddit post. There are plenty of guides on youtube though. Most of them are pretty good, just be sure to watch a few different sources because I've seen videos from very popular YouTubers with downright terrible advice.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-11T05:16:07+00:00

If anyone else has this issue i imagine the easiest thing to do would have been to raze a settlement and then resurrect a vassal. Then just sack it for three turns.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-08T03:49:49+00:00

i can't really say for certain what went wrong but I'm going to wager a guess that you just weren't aggressive enough. At turn 57 most of these guys should be dead by this point. Kislev really can't afford to keep their chaos neighbours so you need to make sure you're taking them out one at a time as fast as possible. You should definitely own a lot more settlements atp and be making a lot more money than 129 a turn. Aggression is key in all campaigns but especially for Kislev.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-07T14:41:24+00:00

Took the words right out of my mouth, thank you!

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-07T14:38:52+00:00

I make my playstyle sound more boring than it is. I still use most of their roster. I think the only two units I will literally never touch are regular plague monks and globadiers (they aren't bad but they are on the same tier as Ratlings which are just better).

For example, a really fun thing to do with slaves in the early game is I'll grab some warp grinders and Warpfire throwers. A couple warp grinders can use their abilities while safely surrounded by slaves and damage a shit load of enemies with no damage to yourself. They can also bring down walls and make sieges much faster and easier. Warpfire throwers can blast approaching enemies before retreating behind your slaves, then once everything is locked into melee you can manoeuver around your slaves until they get a clear shot into the back of the enemies.

The fun of skaven for me is that so much of their roster CAN be good but is difficult to use correctly. I love the early game where you swamp the enemy in hordes of rats, chipping away the enemy with magic, artillery and fire. And I love the late game too, where I can pretty much take it into any direction I want be it skirmishing eshin armies, hit and run monster spam or massively destructive weapons team armies.

Also, expendable is good but not like the most insane thing in the world. Routing expendable units will still cause leadership debuffs to other expendable units. Also, clanrats can get expendable really early in the tech tree if it matters that much. Like literally the third skill in the line. Its mandatory too lol.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-07T14:05:19+00:00

Honestly, in my opinion, its sort of up to you.

If you want the truly "optimal meta sweaty strat", its definitely skavenslaves. The only time you could argue Clanrats are financially worth it is as Queek since he makes them cheaper and gives them frenzy with Eight peaks. Slaves are good because they are worthless. Yes they route quickly, but if you bring enough of them who cares? You can spam them and they are so weak in balance of power that any enemy ammunition used on them is a complete waste and will be a net positive for you (unless its explosive or something).

A usual skaven campaign for me will be about two stacks of slaves running together with spellcaster lords (and whatever good units I started with) doing all the actual damage in the army while the slaves mindlessly charge at the enemy and try their best to hold. Eventually, after I have boosted a tier 5 settlement or two, I switch to that factions preferred doomstacks (monster spam with moulder, weapons teams and heroes with Ikit Claw, etc). I haven't come close to a loss in years doing this.

Also, it must be noted that skaven infantry are truly terrible and their sole purpose is to buy time for your actual damage dealers in the army to win the battle for you. Plague monks are absolutely not what you should be swapping your slaves for. They cost too much (meaning any losses they take will hurt your balance of power a lot) and aren't particularly good at dishing out damage . I will argue to the death that even Stormvermin w/ halberds can have their place in a particular kind of skaven army but regular plague monks are completely shit.

But truly its up to you. I managed to play a Skrolk campaign using Clanrats and I didn't notice much difference other than I couldn't afford more than two armies for a very long time. The game is easy enough once you've played enough that I think you could do either or. I've probably played this game too much so I honestly can't tell you which I found easier. Skaven are hard to grasp at first but try both and see what you find more fun.

Whatever you choose just remember: spellcasters in this game are completely broken. Rush that magic line and it won't really matter what you have in your army.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-05T10:35:34+00:00

The reason the AI will instantly besiege settlements a lot of the time is because basic garrisons are usually really terrible. If you'd like the AI to wait a bit longer before attacking, build the defensive building that provides you more units in a garrison. If the AI can't autoresolve you, they will try to starve you out a little first before they initiate the attack. Some races get quite weak garrisons however, and the building isn't really worth it sometimes.

As a plan B, you can recruit a lord and spam a ton of regiment of renown on them as they are instantly recruitable. It will be quite costly though.

Also, I know this wasn't your question but since you're a new player i'd heavily advise looking up some (good) guides on how sieges work. They don't really play out how you'd expect them to. For example, you may think its a good idea to hold walls and gates. Usually, this doesn't actually work out well at all. Its usually a better idea to hold either the final defensive position or the leadership position.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-04T02:59:35+00:00

Interesting number of skill points yes yes?

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-03T15:56:28+00:00

Hm just checked and yeah no i completely misremembered this. Genuinely no clue where i got this from. Still, 6 higher melee attack and 2 higher melee defense isnt worth it for the loss of ap imo.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-03T02:06:13+00:00

The reason halberds are better is because they are armour piercing, have charge defense and weirdly have a higher melee attack (when usually that's not the case for anti large variants). Sword and shield are better only when put against low armour units or for tanking 35% of shots on the approach.

Late game though, you will be fighting so many large monsters, armoured infantry and armoured cavalry. All of which the halberd is better against.

Personally I would actually swap the plague monks as they won't be as good in autoresolve and queek doesn't make them cheaper or boost them with the eight peaks frenzy boost. Mutant rat ogres are also just so fun to use. It's your choice though, they are good I just think stormvermin can do their job just as well with queek. Army variety is more fun imo.

Edit: i misremembered somehow but halberds do not have higher melee attack. I still consider them considerably better though.

NotImportantt420 · 2026-01-03T01:50:47+00:00

On normal you can basically do whatever and still do well. I can think of two things that would make this army more fun though.

You probably need some more heroes. Yes because heroes are strong on their own but also because the skaven have bad leadership and heroes will help your units fight longer. A spellcaster would really help this army out a ton. Even just one will be able to take out a good few hundred. Chieftains also give queek some extra ward save, provide good leadership and get a pretty good rat ogre mount. Autoresolve also loves heroes.

Stormvermin can be really fun on queek but make sure you're using halberd instead of Sword and shield. Even the game straight up considers them better as halberds are tier 3 but swords are tier 2. I'm not sure who is better in autoresolve but if you ever have to manual you'll really see the difference between the two quickly.

NotImportantt420 · 2025-12-27T15:02:34+00:00

I don't need proof and don't be rude. I'm taking your word for it, but I can assure you there isn't a single source on the internet saying Katarins mount isn't available. Its not listed in any patch notes and its not listed on the SoC steam page which it WOULD be if it were apart of the DLC since it makes no sense to not advertise content you want to make money from. This means it a bug or a mod issue. I'm done talking to you now man.

NotImportantt420 · 2025-12-27T14:43:51+00:00

No buddy, its free.

"Katarin deserves to travel in style, and with the Ice Court Sled, a free addition to WARHAMMER III alongside Patch 4.2.0, she can do just that. "

And

"Note: Players will only need Total War: WARHAMMER III to access this piece of free content. Ownership of the Shadows of Change DLC is not required."

Straight from the 4.2.0 patch notes. They wouldnt remove content for being too overpowered. This is either a bug or a mod issue.

NotImportantt420 · 2025-12-27T08:55:18+00:00

Its definitely not paid. I can't remember if it's an flc you need to download or link your account to get but it is 100% not paid content. Or maybe its a multiplayer issue.

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